■ 


Wi  ill 

■■■■■■■:.- 


Wc\z  §.  ^.  ^tU  pkarg 


^ortlj  (Karalma  JState  College 


A. 


' 


This  BOOK  may  be  kept  out  TWO  WE 
ONLY,    and    is    subject    to    a    fine    of  SB 
CENTS  a  day  thereafter.     It  is  due  or. 
day  indicated  below: 


29  Mm 


:  1967 


"LjlSC  16  17-7C 


j     mi    l5r«ffi 


SCIENTIFIC   PAPERS 


OF 


ASA    GRAY 

SELECTED    BY 

CHARLES   SPRAGUE   SARGENT 

VOL.   II. 

ESSAYS;   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES 

1841-1886 


BOSTON  AND   NEW   YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

(Sfre  fttoersi&e  Press,  £amliri&0? 

18S9 


Copyright,  1889, 
By  CHARLES   SPRAGUE   SARGENT. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass  ,   U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Company. 


CONTENTS. 


ESSAYS. 

PAGE 

European  Herbaria .        .        .        .1 

Notes  of  a  Botanical  Excursion  to  the  Mountains  of  North 

Carolina 22 

The  Longevity  of  Trees 71 

The  Flora  of  Japan 125 

Sequoia  and  its  History 142 

Do  Varieties  Wear  Oct  or  tend  to  Wear  Out    .        .        .        .174 

./Estivation  and  its  Terminology 181 

A  Pilgrimage  to  Torreya 189 

Notes  on  the  History  of  Helianthus  Tuberosus    ....  197 

Forest  Geography  and  Archaeology 204 

The  Pertinacity  and  Predominance  of  Weeds  ....  234 

The  Flora  of  North  America 243 

Gender  of  Names  of  Varieties 257 

Characteristics  of  the  North  American  Flora    ....      260 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

Brown  and  Humboldt 283 

Augustin-Pyramus  De  Candolle 289 

Benjamin  D.  Greene 310 

Charles  Wilkes  Short 312 

Francis  Boott 315 

William  Jackson  Hooker 321 

John  Lindley 333 

William  Henry  Harvey 337 

Henry  P.  Sartwell 343 

Chester  Dewey 345 

Nathaniel  Bagshaw  Ward 349 

Moses  Ashley  Curtis 351 

Hugo  Von  Mohl 354 

Robert  Wight 356 

Frederick  Welwitsch 358 


i 


jv  CONTENTS. 

JOHN    TORREY S59 

William  Starling  Sullivant 370 

Jeffries  Wyman 377 

Daniel  Hanbury 401 

Alexander  Bradn 403 

Charles  Pickering 406 

Elias  Magnus  Fries 411 

.1  \    OB   BlGBLOW 413 

John  Carey 417 

Thomas  Potts  James 419 

John  Amory  Lowell 421 

Charles  Darwin 425 

Joseph  Decaisne 437 

George  Engelmann 439 

Oswald  Heer 447 

George  Bentham 451 

Augustus  Fendler 465 

Charles  Wright 468 

George  W.  Clinton 475 

Edmond  Boissier 479 

Johannes  August  Christian  Rceper 482 

Litis  Agassiz 483 

Edward  Tuckerman 491 


ESSAYS, 


EUROPEAN   HERBARIA.1 

The  vegetable  productions  of  North  America,  in  common 
with  those  of  most  other  parts  of  the  world,  have  generally 
been  first  described  by  European  botanists,  either  from  the 
collections  of  travelers,  or  from  specimens  communicated  by 
residents  of  the  country,  who,  induced  by  an  enlightened  curi- 
osity, the  love  of  flowers,  or  in  some  instances  by  no  inconsid- 
erable scientific  acquirements,  have  thus  sought  to  contribute, 
according  to  their  opportunities,  to  the  promotion  of  botanical 
knowledge.  From  the  increase  in  the  number  of  known 
plants,  it  very  frequently  happens  that  the  brief  descriptions, 
and  even  the  figures,  of  older  authors  are  found  quite  insuffi- 
cient for  the  satisfactory  determination  of  the  particular  spe- 
cies they  had  in  view  ;  and  hence  it  becomes  necessary  to  refer 
to  the  herbaria  where  the  original  specimens  were  preserved. 
In  this  respect,  the  collections  of  the  early  authors  possess  an 
importance  far  exceeding  their  intrinsic  value,  since  they  are 
seldom  large,  and  the  specimens  often  imperfect. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  Linnaean  nomenclature,  a  rule 
absolutely  essential  to  the  perpetuation  of  its  advantages  was 
also  established,  namely,  that  the  name  under  which  a  genus 
or  species  is  first  published  shall  be  retained,  except  in  certain 
cases  of  obvious  and  paramount  necessity.  An  accurate  de- 
termination of  the  Linnsean  species  is  therefore  of  the  first 
importance  ;  and  this,  in  numerous  instances,  is  only  attained 
with  certainty  by  the  inspection  of  the  herbaria  of  Linnaeus 
and  those  authors  upon  whose  descriptive  phrases  or  figures 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  xl.  1.     (1841.) 


2  ESS  A  YS. 

he  established  many  of  his  species.  Our  brief  notices  will 
therefore  naturally  commence  with  the  herbarium  of  the  im- 
mortal Linnaeus,  the  father  of  that  system  of  nomenclature  to 
which  botany,  no  less  than  natural  history  in  general,  is  so 
greatly  indebted. 

This  collection,  it  is  well  known,  after  the  death  of  the 
younger  Linnaeus,  found  its  way  to  England,  from  whence  it 
is  not  probable  that  it  will  ever  be  removed.  The  late  Sir 
James  Edward  Smith,  then  a  young  medical  student,  and  a 
botanist  of  much  promise,  was  one  morning  informed  by  Sir 
Joseph  Banks  that  the  heirs  of  the  younger  Linnaeus  had  just 
offered  him  the  herbarium  with  the  other  collections  and  the 
library  of  the  father,  for  the  sum  of  1000  guineas.  Sir  Joseph 
Banks  not  being  disposed  to  make  the  purchase,  recommended 
it  to  Mr.  Smith  ;  the  latter^  it  appears,  immediately  decided  to 
risk  the  expectation  of  a  moderate  independence,  and  to  secure, 
if  possible,  these  treasures  for  himself  and  his  country ;  and 
before  the  day  closed  had  actually  written  to  Upsal,  desiring 
a  full  catalogue  of  the  collection,  and  offering  to  become  the 
purchaser  at  the  price  fixed,  in  case  it  should  answer  his  ex- 
pectations.1 

1  The  next  day  Mr.  Smith  wrote  as  follows  to  his  father,  informing  him 
of  the  step  he  had  taken  and  entreating  his  assistance  :  — 

"Honored  Sir:  Yon  may  have  heard  that  the  young  Linnseus  is 
lately  dead  :  his  father's  collections  and  library,  and  his  own,  are  now  to 
be  sold  ;  and  the  whole  consists  of  an  immense  hortus  siccus,  with  dupli- 
cates, insects,  shells,  corals,  materia  medica,  fossils,  a  very  fine  library, 
all  the  unpublished  manuscripts,  in  short,  everything  they  were  possessed 
of  relating  to  natural  history  and  physic  ;  the  whole  has  just  been  offered 
to  Sir  Joseph  Banks  for  1000  guineas,  and  he  has  declined  buying  it.  The 
offer  was  made  to  him  by  my  friend  Dr.  Engelhart,  at  the  desire  of  a  Dr. 
Acrel  of  Upsal,  who  has  charge  of  the  collection.  Now,  I  am  so  ambitious 
as  to  wish  to  possess  this  treasure,  with  a  view  to  settle  as  a  physician  in 
London,  and  read  lectures  on  natural  history.  Sir  Joseph  Banks  and  all 
my  friends  to  whom  I  have  entrusted  my  intention,  approve  of  it  highly. 
I  have  written  to  Dr.  Acrel,  to  whom  Dr.  Engelhart  has  recommended 
me,  for  particulars  and  the  refusal,  telling  him  if  it  was  what  I  expected, 
I  would  give  him  a  very  good  price  for  it.  I  hope,  my  dear  sir,  you  and  my 
good  mother  will  look  on  this  scheme  in  as  favorable  a  light  as  my  friends 
here  do.  There  is  no  time  to  be  lost,  for  the  affair  is  now  talked  of  in  all 
companies,  and  a  number  of  people  wish  to  be  purchasers.     The  Empress 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  3 

His  success,  as  soon  appeared,  was  entirely  owing  to  his 
promptitude,  for  other  and  very  pressing  applications  were 
almost  immediately  made  for  the  collection,  but  the  upright 
Dr.  Acrel,  having  given  Mr.  Smith  the  refusal,  declined  to  en- 
tertain any  other  proposals  while  this  negotiation  was  pending. 
The  purchase  was  finally  made  for  900  guineas,  excluding  the 
separate  herbarium  of  the  younger  Linnaeus,  collected  before 
his  father's  death,  and  said  to  contain  nothing  that  did  not 
exist  in  the  original  herbarium  ;  this  was  assigned  to  Baron 
Alstroemer,  in  satisfaction  of  a  small  debt.  The  ship  which 
conveyed  these  treasures  to  London  had  scarcely  sailed,  when 
the  king  of  Sweden,  who  had  been  absent  in  France,  returned 
home  and  dispatched,  it  is  said,  an  armed  vessel  in  pursuit. 
This  story,  though  mentioned  in  the  "Memoir  and  Corre- 
spondence of  Sir  J.  E.  Smith,"  ano>  generally  received,  has,  we 
believe,  been  recently  controverted.  However,  the  king  and 
the  men  of  science  in  Sweden  were  greatly  offended,  as  indeed 
they  had  reason  to  be,  at  the  conduct  of  the  executors,  in 
allowing  these  collections  to  leave  the  country  ;  but  the  dis- 
grace should  perhaps  fall  more  justly  upon  the  Swedish  gov- 
ernment itself  and  the  University  of  Upsal,  which  derived  its 
reputation  almost  entirely  from  the  name  of  Linnaeus.  It 
was,  however,  fortunate  for  science  that  they  were  transferred 
from  such  a  remote  situation  to  the  commercial  metropolis  of 
the  world,  where  they  are  certainly  more  generally  accessible. 
The  late  Professor  Schultes,  in  a  very  amusing  journal  of  a 
botanical  visit  to  England  in  the  year  1824,  laments  indeed 

of  Russia  is  said  to  have  thoughts  of  it.  The  manuscripts,  letters,  etc., 
must  be  invaluable,  and  there  is,  no  doubt,  a  complete  collection  of  all  the 
inaugural  dissertations  which  have  been  published  at  Upsal,  a  small  part 
of  which  has  been  published  under  the  title  of  "Amsenitates  Academical," 
a  very  celebrated  and  scarce  work.  All  these  dissertations  were  written 
by  Linnasus,  and  must  be  of  prodigious  value.  In  short,  the  more  I  think 
of  this  affair  the  more  sanguine  I  am,  and  earnestly  hope  for  your  concur- 
rence. I  wish  I  could  have  one  half  hour's  conversation  with  you  ;  but 
that  is  impossible."  (Correspondence  of  Sir  James  Edward  Smith,  edited 
by  Lady  Smith,  vol.  i.  p.  93.) 

The  appeal  to  his  father  was  not  in  vain  ;  and,  did  our  limits  allow,  we 
should  be  glad  to  copy,  from  the  work  cited  above,  the  entire  correspond- 
ence upon  this  subject. 


4  ESS  A  YS. 

that  they  have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  "  toto  disjunctos  orbe 
Britannos  "  ;  yet  a  journey  even  from  Landshut  to  London 
may  perhaps  be  more  readily  performed  than  to  Upsal. 

After  the  death  of  Sir  James  Edward  Smith  the  herbarium 
and  the  other  collections,  and  library  of  Linnaeus,  as  well  as 
his  own,  were  purchased  by  the  Linnaean  Society.  The  herba- 
rium still  occupies  the  cases  which  contained  it  at  Upsal,  and 
is  scrupulously  preserved  in  its  original  state,  except  that,  for 
more  effectual  protection  from  the  black  penetrating  dust  of 
London,  it  is  divided  into  parcels  of  convenient  size,  which 
are  closely  wrapped  in  covers  of  strong  paper  lined  with  mus- 
lin. The  genera  and  covers  are  numbered  to  correspond  with 
a  complete  manuscript  catalogue,  and  the  collection,  which  is 
by  no  means  large  in  comparison  with  modern  herbaria,  may 
be  consulted  with  great  facility. 

In  the  negotiation  with  Smith,  Dr.  Acrel  stated  the  num- 
ber of  species  as  8000,  which  probably  is  not  too  low  an  esti- 
mate. The  specimens,  which  are  mostly  small,  but  in  excellent 
preservation,  are  attached  to  half-sheets  of  very  ordinary 
paper,  of  the  foolscap  size  1  (which  is  now  considered  too 
small),  and  those  of  each  genus  covered  by  a  double  sheet,  in 
the  ordinary  manner.  The  names  are  usually  written  upon 
the  sheet  itself,  with  a  mark  or  an  abbreviation  to  indicate  the 
source  from  which  the  specimen  was  derived.  Thus  those 
from  the  Upsal  garden  are  marked  H.  U.,  those  given  by 
Kalm,  iT.,  those  received  from  Gronovius,  Gron.,  etc.  The 
labels  are  all  in  the  handwriting  of  Linnaeus  himself,  except 
a  few  later  ones  by  the  son,  and  occasional  notes  by  Smith, 
which  are  readily  distinguished,  and  indeed  are  usually  desig- 
nated by  his  initials.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  North 
American  plants  which  are  found  in  the  Linnaean  herbarium 
were  received  from  Kalm,  or  raised  from  seeds  collected  by 

1  Upon  this  subject  Dr.  Acrel,  giving  an  account  of  the  Linnsean  col- 
lections, thus  writes  to  Smith:  "  Ut  vero  vir  illustrissimus,  dum  vixit, 
nihil  ad  ostentationem  habuit,  omnia  vero  sua  in  usum  accommodata  ;  ita 
etiam  in  hoc  herbario,  quod  per  XL.  annos  sedulo  collegit,  frustra  qusesi- 
veris  papyri  insignia  ornamenta,  margines  inauratas,  et  cet.  quae  ostenta- 
tionis  gratia  in  omnibus  fere  herbariis  nunc  vulgaria  sunt." 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  5 

him.  Under  the  patronage  of  the  Swedish  government,  this 
enterprising  pupil  of  Linnaeus  remained  three  years  in  this 
country,  traveling  throughout  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Lower  Canada ;  hence  his  plants  are  almost 
exclusively  those  of  the  northern  States.1 

Governor  Golden,  to  whom  Kalm  brought  letters  of  intro- 
duction from  Linnseus,  was  then  well  known  as  a  botanist  by 
his  correspondence  with  Peter  Collinson  and  Gronovius,  and 
also  by  his  account  of  the  plants  growing  around  Coldenham, 
New  York,  which  was  sent  to  the  latter,  who  transmitted  it  to 
Linnaeus  for  publication  in  the  "Acta  Upsalensia."  At  an 
early  period  he  attempted  a  direct  correspondence  with  Lin- 
naeus, but  the  ship  by  which  his  specimens  and  notes  were 
sent  was  plundered  by  pirates ; 2  and  in  a  letter  sent  by 
Kalm,  on  the  return  of  the  latter  to  Sweden,  he  informs  Lin- 
naeus that  this  traveler  had  been  such  an  industrious  collector 
as  to  leave  him  little  hopes  of  being  himself  farther  useful. 
It  is  not  probable  therefore  that  Linnaeus  received  any  plants 
from  Colden,  nor  does  his  herbarium  afford  any  such  indi- 
cation.3 

1  "  Ex  his  Kalmium,  naturae  eximium  scrutatorem,  itinere  suo  per  Penn- 
sylvaniam,  Novum  Eboracum,  et  Canadum,  regiones  American  ad  septen- 
trionem  vergentes,  trium  annorum  decursu  dextre  confecto,  in  patriam 
inde  nuper  reducem  lseti  recipimus :  ingentem  enim  ab  istis  terras  reporta- 
vit  thesaurum  non  conchyliorum  solum,  insectorum,  et  amphibiorum  sed 
herbarum  etiam  diversi  generis  ac  usus,  quas,  tarn  siccas  quam  vivas,  alla- 
tis  etiam  seminibus  eorum  recentibus  et  incorruptis,  adduxit."  (Linn. 
Amsen.  Acad.,  vol.  iii.  p.  4.) 

2  See  Letter  of  Linnaeus  to  Haller,  September  24,  1746. 

3  The  Holosteum  succulentum  of  Linnseus  (Alsine  foliis  ellipticis  carnosis 
of  Colden)  is,  however,  marked  in  Linnseus's  own  copy  of  the  "  Species 
Plantarum  "  with  the  sign  employed  to  designate  the  species  he  at  that 
time  possessed ;  but  no  corresponding  specimen  is  to  be  found  in  his  her- 
barium. This  plant  has  long  been  a  puzzle  to  American  botanists  ;  but  it 
is  clear  from  Colden's  description  that  Dr.  Torrey  has  correctly  referred 
it,  in  his  "  Flora  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  States  "  (1824),  to  Stellaria 
media,  the  common  Chickweed.  Governor  Colden's  daughter  seems  fully 
to  have  deserved  the  praise  which  Collinson,  Ellis,  and  others  have  be- 
stowed upon  her.  The  latter,  in  a  letter  to  Linnaeus  (April,  1758),  says  : 
"  Mr.  Colden  of  New  York  has  sent  Dr.  Fothergill  a  new  plant,  described 
by  his  daughter.     It  is  called  Fibraurea,  gold-thread.    It  is  a  small  creep- 


6     /  ESS  A  YS. 

From  Gronovius,  Linnaeus  had  received  a  very  small  num- 
ber of  Clayton's  plants,  previous  to  the  publication  of  the 
"  Species  Plantarum  "  ;  but  most  of  the  species  of  the  "  Flora 
Virginica  "  were  adopted  or  referred  to  other  plants  on  the 
authority  of  the  descriptions  alone. 

Liniueus  had  another  American  correspondent  in  Dr.  John 
Mitchell,1  who  lived  several  years  in  Virginia,  where  he  col- 
lected extensively ;  but  the  ship  in  which  he  returned  to 
England  having  been  taken  by  pirates,  his  own  collections, 
as  well  as  those  of  Governor  Colden,  were  mostly  destroyed. 
Linnseus,  however,  had  previously  received  a  few  specimens, 
as,  for  instance,  those  on  which  Proserpinaca,  Polypremum, 
Galax,  and  some  other  genera  were  founded. 

There  were  two  other  American  botanists  of  this  period, 
from  whom  Linnaeus  derived  either  directly  or  indirectly 
much  information  respecting  the  plants  of  this  country, 
namely,  John  Bartram  and  Dr.  Alexander  Garden  of  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina. 

ing  plant,  growing  on  bogs  ;  the  roots  are  used  in  a  decoction  by  the  coun- 
try people  for  sore  mouths  and  sore  throats.  The  root  and  leaves  are 
very  bitter,  etc.  I  shall  send  you  the  characters  as  near  as  I  can  translate 
them."  Then  follows  Miss  C olden' s  detailed  generic  character,  prepared 
in  a  manner  which  would  not  be  discreditable  to  a  botanist  of  the  present 
day.  It  is  a  pity  that  Linnaeus  did  not  adopt  the  genus,  with  Miss  Col- 
den's  name,  which  is  better  than  Salisbury's  Coptis.  "  This  young  lady 
merits  your  esteem  and  does  honor  to  your  method.  She  has  drawn  and 
described  four  hundred  plants  in  your  system  :  she  uses  only  English 
terms.  Her  father  has  a  plant  called  after  him  Coldenia ;  suppose  you 
should  call  this  (alluding  to  a  new  genus  of  which  he  added  the  charac- 
ters) Coldenella,  or  any  other  name  which  might  distinguish  her  among 
your  genera."      (Ellis,  Letter  to  Linnaeus.) 

1  To  him  the  pretty  Mitchella  repens  was  dedicated.  Dr.  Mitchell  had 
sent  to  Collinson,  perhaps  as  early  as  the  year  1740,  a  paper  in  which 
thirty  new  genera  of  Virginian  plants  were  proposed.  This  Collinson 
sent  to  Trew  at  Nuremberg,  who  published  it  in  the  "  Ephemerides  Acad. 
Naturae  Cnriosorum  "  for  1748  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  most  of  the 
genera  had  been  already  published,  with  other  names,  by  Linnaeus  or  Gro- 
novius. Among  Mitchell's  new  genera  was  one  which  he  called  Chamae- 
daphne  :  this  Linnaeus  referred  to  Lonicera,  but  the  elder  (Bernard)  Jus- 
sieu,  in  a  letter  dated  February  19,  1751,  having  shown  him  that  it  was 
very  distinct  both  from  Lonicera  and  Linnaea,  and  in  fact  belonged  to  a 
different  natural  order,  he  afterwards  named  it  Mitchella. 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  7 

The  former  collected  seeds  and  living  plants  for  Peter  Col- 
linson  during  more  than  twenty  years,  and  even  at  that  early 
day  extended  his  laborious  researches  from  the  frontiers  of 
Canada  to  southern  Florida  and  the  Mississippi.  All  his 
collections  were  sent  to  his  patron  Collinson,1  until  the  death 

i  Mr.  Collinson  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  all  the  lovers  of  plants 
in  this  country,  among  whom  were  Governor  Coldeu,  Bartram,  Mitchell, 
Clayton,  and  Dr.  Garden,  by  whose  means  he  procured  the  introduction 
of  great  numbers  of  North  American  plants  into  the  English  gardens. 
"  Your  system,"  he  writes  Linnaeus,  "  I  can  tell  you,  obtains  much  in 
America.  Mr.  Clayton  and  Dr.  Colden  at  Albany,  on  Hudson's  River,  in 
New  York,  are  complete  professors,  as  is  Dr.  Mitchell  at  Urbana,  on 
Rappahannock  River  in  Virginia.  It  is  he  that  has  made  many  and  great 
discoveries  in  the  vegetable  world."  "I  am  glad  you  have  the  corre- 
spondence of  Dr.  Colden  and  Mr.  Bartram.  They  are  both  very  inde- 
fatigable, ingenious  men.  Your  system  is  much  admired  in  North  Amer- 
ica." Again,  "I  have  but  lately  heard  from  Mr.  Colden.  He  is  well, 
but  what  is  marvellous,  his  daughter  is  perhaps  the  first  lady  that  has  so 
perfectly  studied  your  system.  She  deserves  to  be  celebrated."  "In 
the  second  volume  of  '  Edinburg  Essays  '  is  published  a  Latin  botanic  dis- 
sertation by  Miss  Colden  ;  perhaps  the  only  lady  that  makes  a  profession 
of  the  Linnsean  system,  of  which  you  maybe  proud."  From  all  this,  bot- 
any appears  to  have  flourished  in  the  North  American  colonies.  But  Dr. 
Garden  about  this  time  writes  thus  to  his  friend  Ellis  :  "Ever  since  I 
have  been  in  Carolina,  I  have  never  been  able  to  set  my  eye  upon  one 
who  had  barely  a  regard  for  botany.  Indeed,  I  have  often  wondered 
how  there  should  be  one  place  abounding  with  so  many  marks  of  the  di- 
vine wisdom  and  power,  and  not  one  rational  eye  to  contemplate  them  ; 
or  that  there  should  be  a  country  abounding  with  almost  every  sort  of 
plant,  and  almost  every  species  of  the  animal  kind,  and  yet  that  it 
should  not  have  pleased  God  to  raise  up  one  botanist.  Strange,  indeed, 
that  the  creature  should  be  so  rare  !  "  But  to  return  to  Collinson,  the 
most  amusing  portion  of  whose  correspondence  consists  of  his  letters  to 
Linnaeus  shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  "Species  Plantarum,"  in 
which  (with  all  kindness  and  sincerity)  he  reproves  the  great  Swedish 
naturalist  for  his  innovations,  employing  the  same  arguments  which  a 
strenuous  Linnsean  might  be  supposed  to  advance  against  a  botanist  of 
these  latter  days.  "I  have  had  the  pleasure,"  Collinson  writes,  "of 
reading  your  '  Species  Plantarum,'  a  very  useful  and  laborious  work. 
But,  my  dear  friend,  we  that  admire  you  are  much  concerned  that  you 
should  perplex  the  delightful  science  of  botany  with  changing  names  that 
have  been  well  received,  and  adding  new  names  quite  unknown  to  us. 
Thus,  botany,  which  was  a  pleasant  study  and  attainable  by  most  men,  is 
now  become,  by  alterations  and  new  names,  the  study  of  a  man's  life,  and 


8  ESS  A  YS. 

of  that  amiable  and  simple-hearted  man,  in  1768  ;  and  by 
him  many  seeds,  living  plants,  and  interesting  observations 
were  communicated  to  Linnaeus,  but  few,  if  any,  dried  speci- 
mens. Dr.  Garden,  who  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  resided  in 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  from  about  1745  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  American  Revolution,  devoting  all  the  time 
he  could  redeem  from  an  extensive  medical  practice  to  the 
zealous  pursuit  of  botany  and  zoology.  His  chief  correspond- 
ent was  Ellis  at  London,  but  through  Ellis  he  commenced  a 
correspondence  with  Linnaeus,  and  to  both  he  sent  manuscript 
descriptions  of  new  plants  and  animals  with  many  excellent 
critical  observations.  None  of  his  specimens  addressed  to  the 
latter  reached  their  destination,  the  ships  by  which  they  were 
sent  having  been  intercepted  by  French  cruisers  ;  and  Linnaeus 
complained  that  he  was  often  unable  to  make  out  many  of  Dr. 
Garden's  genera  for  want  of  the  plants  themselves.  Ellis  was 
sometimes  more  fortunate,  but  as  he  seems  usually  to  have  con- 
tented himself  with  the  transmission  of  the  descriptions  alone, 
we  find  no  authentic  specimens  from  Garden  in  the  Linnaean 
herbarium. 

We  have  now  probably  mentioned  all  the  North  American 
correspondents  of  Linnaeus  ;  for  Dr.  Kuhn,  who  appears  only 
to  have  brought  him  living  specimens  of  the  plant  which  bears 
his  name,  and  Catesby,  who  shortly  before  his  death  sent  a 
few  living  plants  which  his  friend  Lawson  had  collected  in 
Carolina,  can  scarcely  be  reckoned  among  the  number.1 

none  now  but  real  professors  can  pretend  to  attain  it.  As  I  love  you  I 
tell  you  our  sentiments."  (Letter  of  April  20,  1754.)  "  You  have  begun 
by  your  '  Species  Plantarum '  ;  but  if  you  will  be  forever  making  new 
names,  and  altering  good  and  old  ones,  for  such  hard  names  that  convey 
no  idea  of  the  plant,  it  will  be  impossible  to  attain  to  a  perfect  knowledge 
in  the  science  of  botany."  (Letter  of  April  10,  1755  :  from  Smith's  Se- 
lection of  the  Correspondence  of  Linnaeus,  etc.) 

1  In  a  letter  to  Haller,  dated  Leyden,  January  23,  1738,  Linnseus 
writes  :  "  You  would  scarcely  believe  how  many  of  the  vegetable  produc- 
tions of  Virginia  are  the  same  as  our  European  ones.  There  are  Alps  in 
the  country  of  New  York,  for  the  snow  remains  all  summer  long  on  the 
mountains  there.  I  am  now  giving  instructions  to  a  medical  student 
here,  who  is  a  native  of  that  country,  and  will  return  thither  in  the  course 
of  a  year,  that  he  may  visit  those  mountains,  and  let  me  know  whether 


EUROPEAN   HERBARIA.  9 

The  Linnaean  Society  also  possesses  the  proper  herbarium 
of  its  founder  and  first  president,  Sir  James  E.  Smith,  which 
is  a  beautiful  collection  and  in  perfect  preservation.  The 
specimens  are  attached  to  fine  and  strong  paper,  after  the 
method  now  common  in  England.  In  North  American  bot- 
any, the  chief  contributors  are  Menzies,  for  the  plants  of 
California  and  the  Northwest  coast ;  and  Muhlenberg,  Bige- 
low,  Torrey,  and  Boott,  for  those  of  the  United  States.  Here 
also  we  find  the  Cryptogamic  collections  of  Acharius,  con- 
taining the  authentic  specimens  described  in  his  works  on 
the  Lichens,  and  the  magnificent  East  Indian  herbarium  of 
Wallich,  presented  some  years  since  by  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. 

The  collections  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  are 
scarcely  inferior  in  importance  to  the  Linnaean  herbarium 
itself,  in  aiding  the  determination  of  the  species  of  Linnaeus 
and  other  early  authors.  Here  we  meet  with  the  authentic 
herbarium  of  the  "  Hortus  Cliff ortianus,"  one  of  the  earliest 
works  of  Linnaeus,  which  comprises  some  plants  which  are 
not  to  be  found  in  his  own  proper  herbarium.  Here  also  is 
the  herbarium  of  Plunkenet,  which  consists  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  small  specimens  crowded,  without  apparent  order,  upon 
the  pages  of  a  dozen  large  folio  volumes.  With  due  atten- 
tion, the  originals  of  many  figures  in  the  "  Almagestum  "  and 
"  Amaltheum  Botanicum,"  etc.,  may  be  recognized,  and  many 
Linnaean  species  thereby  authenticated.  The  herbarium  of 
Sloane,  also,  is  not  without  interest  to  the  North  American 
botanist,  since  many  plants  described  in  the  "  Voyage  to 
Jamaica,"  etc.,  and  the  "  Catalogue  of  the  Plants  of  Jamaica," 
were  united  by  Linnaeus,  in  almost  every  instance  incorrectly, 
with  species  peculiar  to  the  United  States  and  Canada.  But 
still  more  important  is  the  herbarium  of  Clayton,  from  whose 
notes  and  specimens  Gronovius  edited  the  "  Flora  Virgin- 
ica."  :     Many  Linnaean  species  are  founded  on  the  plants 

the  same  alpine  plants  are  found  there  as  in  Europe."  Who  can  this 
American  student  have  been  ?  Kuhn  did  not  visit  Linnseus  until  more 
than  fifteen  years  after  the  date  of  this  letter. 

1  "  Flora  Virginica,  exhibens  plantas  quas  J.  Clayton  in  Virgin'-    col- 


10  ESSAYS. 

here  described  for  which  this  herbarium  is  alone  authentic  ; 
for  Linnaeus,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  possessed  very 
few  of  Clayton's  plants.  The  collection  is  nearly  complete, 
but  the  specimens  were  not  well  prepared,  and  are  not  there- 
fore always  in  perfect  preservation.  A  collection  of  Cates- 
by's  plants  exists  also  in  the  British  Museum,  but  probably 
the  larger  portion  remains  at  Oxford.  There  is  besides, 
among  the  separate  collections,  a  small  but  very  interesting- 
parcel  selected  by  the  elder  Bar  tram,  from  his  collection 
made  in  Georgia  and  Florida  almost  a  century  ago,  and  pre- 
sented to  Queen  Charlotte,  with  a  letter  of  touching  simplic- 
ity. At  the  time  this  fasciculus  was  prepared,  nearly  all  the 
plants  it  comprised  were  undescribed,  and  many  were  of  en- 
tirely new  genera ;  several,  indeed,  have  only  been  published 
very  recently,  and  a  few  are  not  yet  recorded  as  natives  of 
North  America.  Among  the  latter  we  may  mention  Petive- 
ria  alliacea  and  Ximinea  Americana,  which  last  has  again 
recently  been  collected  in  the  same  region.  This  small  parcel 
contains  the  Elliottia,  Muhl.,  Polypteris,  Nutt.,  Baldwinia, 
Nutt.,  Macranthera,  Torr.,  Glottidium,  Mayaca,  Chaptalia, 
Befaria,  Eriogonum  tomentosum,  Polygonum  polygamnm, 
Vent.,  Gardoqida  Hookeri,  Benth.,  Satureia  (^Pycnothymus) 
rigida,  Cliftonia,  Hypericum  aureum,  Galactia  Elliottii, 
Krameria  lanceolata,  Torr.,  Waldsteinia  ( Comaropsis)  lo- 
bata,  Torr.  &  Gr.,  the  Dolichos  t  multiflorus,  Torr.  &  Gr., 
the  Chapmannia,  Torr.  &  Gr.,  Psoralea  Liqiinellus,  and  others 
of  almost  equal  interest  or  rarity,  which  it  is  much  to  be  re- 
gretted were  not  long  ago  made  known  from  Bartram's  dis- 
coveries. 

The  herbarium  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  is  probably  the  oldest  one  prepared  in  the  manner 
commonly  adopted  in  England,  of  which,  therefore,  it  may 
serve  as  a  specimen.  The  plants  are  glued  fast  to  half-sheets 
of  very  thick  and  firm  white  paper  of  excellent  quality  (simi- 
lar to  that  employed  for  merchants'  ledgers,  etc.),  all  care- 
legit."  Ludg.  Bat.  8vo,  1743.  Ed.  2,  4to,  1762.  The  first  edition  is  cited 
in  the  "  Species  Plantarum  "  of  Linnaeus  ;  the  second,  again,  quotes  the 
specific  phrases  of  Linnaeus. 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  11 

fully  cut  to  the  same  size,  which  is  usually  16*  inches  by  lOf , 
and  the  name  of  the  species  is  written  on  the  lower  right- 
hand  corner.  All  the  species  of  a  genus  if  they  are  few  in 
number,  or  any  convenient  subdivision  of  a  larger  genus,  are 
enclosed  in  a  whole  sheet  of  the  same  quality,  and  labelled  at 
the  lower  left-hand  corner.  These  parcels,  properly  arranged, 
are  preserved  in  cases  or  closets,  with  folding-doors  made  to 
shut  as  closely  as  possible,  being  laid  horizontally  into  com- 
partments just  wide  enough  to  receive  them,  and  of  any  con- 
venient depth.  In  the  Banksian  herbarium,  the  shelves  are 
also  made  to  draw  out  like  a  case  of  drawers.  This  method 
is  unrivalled  for  elegance,  and  the  facility  with  which  the 
specimens  may  be  found  and  inspected,  which  to  a  working 
botanist  with  a  large  collection  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
consequence.  The  only  objection  is  the  expense,  which  be- 
comes very  considerable  when  paper  worth  at  least  ten  dol- 
lars per  ream  is  employed  for  the  purpose,  which  is  the  case 
with  the  principal  herbaria  in  England  ;  but  a  cheaper  papera 
if  it  be  only  sufficiently  thick  and  firm,  will  answer  nearly  as 
well.  The  Banksian  herbarium  contains  authentic  specimens 
of  nearly  all  the  plants  of  Aiton's  "  Hortus  Kewensis,"  in 
which  many  North  American  species  were  early  established. 
It  is  hardly  proper  indeed,  that  either  the  elder  or  younger 
Aiton  should  be  quoted  for  these  species,  since  the  first  edi- 
tion was  prepared  by  Solander,  and  the  second  revised  by 
Dryander,  as  to  vol.  1  and  2,  and  the  remainder  by  Mr. 
Brown.  Many  American  plants  from  the  Physic  garden  at 
Chelsea,  named  by  Miller,  are  here  preserved,  as  also  from 
the  gardens  of  Collinson,  Dr.  Fothergill  (who  was  Bartram's 
correspondent  after  Collinson's  death),  Dr.  Pitcairne,  etc. 
There  are  likewise  many  contributions  of  indigenous  plants  of 
the  United  States,  from  Bartram,  Dr.  Mitchell,  Dr.  Garden, 
Fraser,  Marshall,  and  other  early  cultivators  of  botany  in  this 
country.  The  herbarium  also  comprises  many  plants  from 
Labrador  and  Newfoundland,  a  portion  of  which  were  col- 
lected by  Sir  Joseph  Banks  himself  ;  and  in  the  plants  of 
the  northern  and  arctic  regions  it  is  enriched  by  the  collec- 
tions  of   Barry,   Poss,    and   Dr.   Richardson.     Two   sets  of 


12  ESS  A  YS. 

plants  collected  by  the  venerable  Menzies  in  Vancouver's  voy- 
age, are  preserved  at  the  British  Museum,  the  one  incorpo- 
rated with  the  Banksian  herbarium,  the  other  forming  a  sepa- 
rate collection.  Those  of  this  country  are  of  the  Northwest 
Coast,  the  mouth  of  the  Oregon  River,  and  from  California. 
Many  of  Pursh's  species  were  described  from  sjDecimens  pre- 
served in  this  herbarium,  especially  the  Oregon  plants  of 
Menzies  and  those  of  Bartram  and  others  from  the  more 
southern  United  States,  which  Pursh  had  never  visited,  al- 
though he  often  adds  the  mark  v.  v.  (vidi  vivarn)  to  species 
which  are  only  to  be  met  with  south  of  Virginia. 

The  herbarium  of  Walter  still  remains  in  the  possession  of 
the  Fraser  family,  and  in  the  same  condition  as  when  con- 
sulted by  Pursh.  It  is  a  small  collection,  occupying  a  single 
large  volume.  The  specimens,  which  are  commonly  mere 
fragments,  often  serve  to  identify  the  species  of  the  "  Flora 
Caroliniana,"  although  they  are  not  always  labelled  in  accord- 
ance with  that  work. 

The  collections  of  Pursh,  which  served  as  the  basis  of  his 
"  Flora  America?  Septentrionalis,"  are  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Lambert,  and  form  a  part  of  his  immense  herbarium.  These, 
with  a  few  specimens  brought  by  Lewis  and  Clark  from  Ore- 
gon and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  a  set  of  Nuttall's  collections 
on  the  Missouri,  and  also  of  Bradbury's  so  far  as  they  are  ex- 
tant, with  a  small  number  from  Fraser,  Lyon,  etc.,  compose 
the  most  important  portion  of  this  herbarium,  so  far  as  North 
American  botany  is  concerned.  There  is  also  a  small  Cana- 
dian collection  made  by  Pursh  subsequently  to  the  publication 
of  his  Flora,  a  considerable  number  of  Menzies's  plants,  and 
other  minor  contributions.  To  the  general  botanist,  probably 
the  fine  herbarium  of  Pallas,  and  the  splendid  Collection  of 
Ruiz  and  Pavon  (both  acquired  by  Mr.  Lambert  at  a  great 
expense)  are  of  the  highest  interest ;  and  they  are  by  no 
means  unimportant  in  their  relations  to  North  American  bot- 
any, since  the  former  comprises  several  species  from  the  North- 
west Coast  and  numerous  allied  Siberian  forms,  while  our 
California  plants  require  in  some  instances  to  be  compared 
with  the  Chilian  and  Peruvian  plants  of  the  latter. 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  13 

Besides  the  herbaria  already  mentioned,  there  are  two 
others  in  London  of  more  recent  formation,  which  possess  the 
highest  interest  as  well  to  the  general  as  to  the  American 
botanist,  namely  that  of  Professor  Lindley,  and  of  Mr.  Bent- 
ham.  Both  comprise  very  complete  sets  of  the  plants  col- 
lected by  Douglas  in  Oregon,  California,  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  as  well  as  those  raised  from  seeds  or  bulbs,  which 
he  transmitted  to  England,  of  which  a  large  portion  have  from 
time  to  time  been  published  by  these  authors.  Mr.  Bentham's 
herbarium  is  probably  the  richest  and  most  authentic  collec- 
tion in  the  world  for  Labiatce,  and  is  perhaps  nearly  unri- 
valled for  Leguminosce,  Scrojihularinece,  and  the  other  tribes 
to  which  he  has  devoted  especial  attention ;  it  is  also  particu- 
larly full  and  authentic  in  European  plants.  Professor  Lind- 
ley's  herbarium,  which  is  very  complete  in  every  department, 
is  wholly  unrivalled  in  Orchidaceous  plants.  The  genus-covers 
are  made  of  strong  and  smooth  hardware  paper,  the  names 
being  written  on  a  slip  of  white  paper  pasted  on  the  lower  cor- 
ner. This  is  an  excellent  plan,  as  covers  of  white  paper,  in 
the  herbarium  of  an  active  botanist,  are  apt  to  be  soiled  by 
frequent  use.  The  paper  employed  by  Dr.  Lindley  is  8£ 
inches  in  length  and  11  h  inches  wide,  which,  as  he  has  him- 
self remarked,  is  rather  larger  than  is  necessary,  and  much  too 
expensive  for  general  use. 

The  herbarium  of  Sir  William  J.  Hooker,  at  Glasgow,  is 
not  only  the  largest  and  most  valuable  collection  in  the  world, 
in  the  possession  of  a  private  individual,  but  it  also  comprises 
the  richest  collection  of  North  American  plants  in  Europe. 
Here  we  find  nearly  complete  sets  of  the  plants  collected  in 
the  arctic  voyages  of  discovery,  the  overland  journeys  of 
Franklin  to  the  polar  sea,  the  collections  of  Drummond  and 
Douglas  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  Oregon,  and  California,  as 
well  as  those  of  Professor  Scouler,  Mr.  Tolmie,  Dr.  Gaird- 
ner,  and  numerous  officers  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
from  almost  every  part  of  the  vast  territory  embraced  in  their 
operations  from  one  side  of  the  continent  to  the  other.  By  an 
active  and  prolonged  correspondence  with  nearly  all  the  bot- 
anists and  lovers  of  plants  in  the  United  States  and  Canada, 


14  ESS  A  VS. 

as  well  as  by  the  collections  of  travelers,  this  herbarium  is 
rendered  unusually  rich  in  the  botany  of  this  country ;  while 
Drummond's  Texan  collections,  and  many  contributions  from 
Mr.  Nuttall  and  others,  very  fully  represent  the  flora  of  our 
southern  and  western  confines.  That  these  valuable  mate- 
rials have  not  been  buried,  or  suffered  to  accumulate  to  no 
purpose  or  advantage  to  science,  the  pages  of  the  "  Flora 
Boreali- Americana,"  the  "Botanical  Magazine,"  the  "Botani- 
cal Miscellany,"  the  "  Journal  of  Botany,"  the  "  Icones  Plan- 
tarum,"  and  other  works  of  this  industrious  botanist,  abun- 
dantly testify ;  and  no  single  herbarium  will  afford  the  student 
of  North  American  botany  such  extensive  aid  as  that  of  Sir 
William  Hooker. 

The  herbarium  of  Dr.  Arnott  of  Arlary,  although  more 
especially  rich  and  authentic  in  East  Indian  plants,  is  also 
interesting  to  the  North  American  botanist,  as  well  for  the 
plants  of  the  "  Botany  of  Captain  Beechy's  Voyage,"  etc., 
published  by  Hooker  and  himself,  as  the  collections  of  Drum- 
mond  and  others,  all  of  which  have  been  carefully  studied  by 
this  sagacious  botanist. 

The  most  important  botanical  collection  in  Paris,  and,  in- 
deed, perhaps  the  largest  in  the  world,  is  that  of  the  Royal 
Museum  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  or  Jardin  du  Roi.  We 
cannot  now  devote  even  a  passing  notice  to  the  garden  and 
magnificent  new  conservatories  of  this  noble  institution,  much 
less  to  the  menagerie  and  celebrated  museum  of  zoology  and 
anatomy,  of  the  cabinet  of  mineralogy,  geology,  and  fossil  re- 
mains, which,  newly  arranged  in  a  building  recently  erected 
for  its  reception,  has  just  been  thrown  open  to  the  public. 
The  botanical  collections  occupy  a  portion  of  this  new  build- 
ing. A  large  room  on  the  first  floor,  handsomely  fitted  up 
with  glass  cases,  contains  the  cabinet  of  fruits,  seeds,  sections 
of  stems,  and  curious  examples  of  vegetable  structure  from 
every  part  of  the  known  world.  Among  them  we  find  an  in- 
teresting suite  of  specimens  of  the  wood,  and  another  com- 
prising the  fruits,  or  nuts,  of  nearly  all  the  trees  of  this  coun- 
try ;  both  collected  and  prepared  by  the  younger  Michaux. 
The  herbaria  now  occupy  a  large  room  or  hall,  immediately 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA,  15 

over  the  former,  perhaps  eighty  feet  long  and  thirty  wide  above 
the  galleries,  and  very  conveniently  lighted  from  the  roof. 
Beneath  the  galleries  are  four  or  five  small  rooms  on  each 
side,  lighted  from  the  exterior,  used  as  cabinets  for  study  and 
for  separate  herbaria,  and  above  them  the  same  number  of 
smaller  rooms  or  closets,  occupied  by  duplicate  or  unarranged 
collections.  The  cases  which  contain  the  herbaria  occupy  the 
walls  of  the  large  hall  and  of  the  side  rooms.  Their  plan  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  that  generally  adopted  in  France.  The 
shelves  are  divided  into  compartments  in  the  usual  manner : 
but  instead  of  doors  the  cabinet  is  closed  by  a  curtain  of  thick 
and  coarse  brown  linen,  kept  extended  by  a  heavy  bar  at- 
tached to  the  bottom,  which  is  counterpoised  by  concealed 
weights,  and  the  curtain  is  raised  or  dropped  by  a  pulley. 
Paper  of  very  ordinary  quality  is  generally  used,  and  the 
specimens  are  attached,  either  to  half  sheets  or  to  double 
sheets,  by  slips  of  gummed  paper,  or  by  pins,  or  sometimes 
the  specimen  itself  is  glued  to  the  paper.  Genera  or  other 
divisions  are  separated  by  interposed  sheets,  having  the  name 
written  on  a  projecting  slip. 

According  to  the  excellent  plan  adopted  in  the  arrangement 
of  these  collections,  which  is  due  to  Desfontaines,  three  kinds 
of  herbaria  have  been  instituted,  namely :  1.  The  general  her- 
barium. 2.  The  herbaria  of  particular  works  or  celebrated 
authors,  which  are  kept  distinct,  the  duplicates  alone  being- 
distributed  in  the  general  collection.  3.  Separate  herbaria  of 
different  countries,  which  are  composed  of  the  duplicates  taken 
from  the  general  herbarium.  To  these,  new  accessions  from 
different  countries  are  added,  which  from  time  to  time  are 
assorted  and  examined,  and  those  required  for  the  general  her- 
barium are  removed  to  that  collection.  The  ancient  herbarium 
of  Vaillant  forms  the  basis  of  the  general  collection;  the  speci- 
mens, which  are  all  labelled  by  his  own  hand,  are  in  excellent 
preservation,  and  among  them  plants  derived  from  Cornuti  or 
Dr.  Surrasin  may  occasionally  be  met  with.  This  collection, 
augmented  to  many  times  its  original  extent,  by  the  plants  of 
Commerson,  Dombey,  Poiteau,  Leschenault,  etc.,  and  by  the 
duplicates  from  the  special  herbaria,  probably  contains  at  this 


16  ESS  A  YS. 

time  thirty  or  forty  thousand  species.  Of  the  separate  her- 
baria, the  most  interesting  to  us  is  that  made  in  this  country 
by  the  elder  Michaux,  from  whose  specimens  and  notes  the 
learned  Richard  prepared  the  "  Flora  Boreali- Americana." 

Michaux  himself,  although  an  excellent  and  industrious 
collector  and  observer,  was  by  no  means  qualified  for  author- 
ship ;  and  it  is  to  L.  C.  Richard  that  the  sagacious  observa- 
tions, and  the  elegant,  terse,  and  highly  characteristic  specific 
phrases  of  this  work  are  entirely  due.  There  is  also  the  very 
complete  Newfoundland  collection  of  La  Pylaie,  comprising 
about  300  species,  and  a  set  of  Berlandier's  Texan  and  Mexican 
plants,  as  well  as  numerous  herbaria  less  directly  connected 
with  North  American  botany,  which  we  have  not  room  to 
enumerate.  Here,  however,  we  do  not  find  the  herbaria  of 
several  authors  which  we  should  have  expected.  That  of 
Lamarck,  for  instance,  is  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Rceper 
at  Rostock,  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  ;  that  of  Poiret  belongs 
to  Moquin-Tandon  of  Toulouse  ;  that  of  Bosc,  to  Professor 
Moretti  of  Pavia ;  and  the  proper  herbarium  of  the  late  Des- 
fontaines,  which  however  still  remains  at  Paris,  now  forms  a 
part  of  the  very  large  and  valuable  collection  of  Mr.  Webb. 
The  herbarium  of  Mr.  Webb,  although  of  recent  establishment, 
is  only  second  to  that  of  Baron  Delessert ;  the  two  being  far 
the  largest  private  collections  in  France,  and  comprising  not 
only  many  older  herbaria,  but  also,  as  far  as  possible,  full  sets 
of  the  plants  of  recent  collectors.  The  former  contains  many 
of  Michaux's  plants  (derived  from  the  herbarium  of  Desfon- 
taines),  a  North  American  collection,  sent  by  Nuttall  to  the 
late  Mr.  Mercier  of  Geneva,  a  full  set  of  Drummond's  collec- 
tions in  the  United  States  and  Texas,  etc.  The  latter  also 
comprises  many  plants  of  Michaux,  derived  from  Ventenat's 
herbarium,  complete  sets  of  Drummond's  collections,  etc. 
But  a  more  important,  because  original  and  perhaps  complete, 
set  of  the  plants  of  Michaux  is  found  in  the  herbarium  of  the 
late  Richard,  now  in  possession  of  his  son,  Professor  Achille 
Richard,  which  even  contains  a  few  species  which  do  not  ex- 
ist in  the  herbarium  at  the  Royal  Museum.  The  herbarium 
of  the  celebrated  Jussieu,  a  fine  collection,  which  is  scrupu- 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  17 

lously  preserved  in  its  original  state,  by  his  worthy  son  and 
successor,  Professor  Adrien  Jussieu,  comprises  many  North 
American  plants  of  the  older  collectors,  of  which  several  are 
authentic  for  species  of  Lamarck,  Poiret,  Cassini,  etc. 

The  herbarium  of  De  Candolle  at  Geneva,  accumulated 
throughout  the  long  and  active  career  of  this  justly  celebrated 
botanist,  and  enriched  by  a  great  number  of  correspondents, 
is  surpassed  by  few  others  in  size,  and  by  none  in  importance. 
In  order  that  it  may  remain  as  authentic  as  possible  for  his 
published  works,  especially  the  "  Prodromus,"  no  subsequent 
accessions  to  families  already  published  are  admitted  into  the 
general  herbarium,  but  these  are  arranged  in  a  separate  col- 
lection. The  proper  herbarium,  therefore,  accurately  exhibits 
the  materials  employed  in  the  preparation  of  the  "  Prodro- 
mus," at  least  so  far  as  these  were  in  Professor  De  Candolle's 
own  possession.  As  almost  twenty  years  have  elapsed  since 
the  commencement  of  this  herculean  undertaking,  the  authen- 
tic herbarium  is  of  course  much  less  rich  in  the  earlier  than 
in  the  later  orders.  The  Compositce,  to  which  seven  years  of 
unremitted  labor  have  been  devoted,  form  themselves  an  her- 
barium of  no  inconsiderable  size.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enu- 
merate the  contributors  to  this  collection  (which  indeed  would 
form  an  extended  list),  since  the  author,  at  least  in  later 
volumes  of  the  "  Prodromus,"  carefully  indicates,  as  fully  as 
the  work  permits,  the  sources  whence  his  materials  have  been 
derived.  The  paper  employed  is  of  an  ordinary  kind,  some- 
what smaller  than  the  English  size,  perhaps  fifteen  inches  by 
ten ;  and  the  specimens  are  attached  to  half  sheets  by  loops 
or  slips  of  paper  fastened  by  pins  so  that  they  may  readily  be 
detached,  if  necessary,  for  particular  examination.  Several 
specimens  from  different  sources  or  localities,  or  exhibiting 
the  different  varieties  of  a  species,  are  retained  when  practi- 
cable ;  and  each  species  has  a  separate  cover,  with  a  label 
affixed  to  the  corner,  containing  the  name  and  a  reference 
to  the  volume  and  page  of  the  "  Prodromus  "  where  it  is  de- 
scribed. The  limits  of  genera,  sections,  tribes,  etc.,  are  marked 
by  interposed  sheets,  with  the  name  written  on  projecting 
slips.     The  parcels  which  occupy  each  compartment  of  the 


18  ESSAYS. 

well-filled  shelves  are  protected  by  pieces  of  binder's  board, 
and  secured  by  a  cord,  which  is  the  more  necessary  as  the 
doors  are  not  closed  by  doors  or  curtains. 

The  royal  Bavarian  herbarium  at  Munich  is  chiefly  valua- 
ble for  its  Brazilian  plants,  with  which  it  has  been  enriched 
by  the  laborious  and  learned  Martius.  The  North  American 
botanist  will,  however,  be  interested  in  the  herbarium  of 
Schreber,  which  is  here  preserved  and  comprises  the  authentic 
specimens  described  or  figured  in  his  work  on  the  grasses,  the 
American  species  mostly  communicated  by  Muhlenberg.  The 
G  rami  nee  of  this  and  the  general  herbarium  have  been  revised 
by  Nees  von  Esenbeck,  and  still  later  by  Trinius.  It  was 
here  that  the  latter,  who  for  many  years  had  devoted  himself 
to  the  exclusive  study  of  this  tribe  of  plants,  and  had  nearly 
finished  the  examination  of  the  chief  herbaria  of  the  conti- 
nent, preparatory  to  the  publication  of  a  new  Agrostographia, 
was  suddenly  struck  with  a  paralysis,  which  has  probably 
brought  his  scientific  labors  to  a  close. 

The  imperial  herbarium  at  Vienna,  under  the  superinten- 
dence of  the  accomplished  Endlicher,  assisted  by  Dr.  Fenzl, 
is  rapidly  becoming  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  extensive 
collections  in  Europe.  The  various  herbaria  of  which  it  is 
composed  have  recently  been  incorporated  into  one,  which  is 
prepared  nearly  after  the  English  method.  It,  however,  pos- 
sesses few  North  American  plants,  except  a  collection  made 
by  Enslin  (a  collector  sent  to  this  country  by  Prince  Lich- 
tenstein,  from  whom  Pursh  obtained  many  specimens  from 
the  southern  States),  and  some  recent  contributions  by 
Hooker,  etc.  There  is  also  an  imperfect  set  of  plants  collected 
by  Hsenke  (a  portion  of  which  are  from  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia), so  far  as  they  are  yet  published  in  the  "  Keliqure  Haen- 
keanse"  of  Presl,  in  whose  custody,  as  curator  of  the  Bohemian 
museum  at  Prague,  the  original  collection  remains. 

The  herbarium  of  the  late  Professor  Sprengle  still  remains 
in  the  possession  of  his  son,  Dr.  Anthony  Sprengle,  at  Halle, 
but  is  offered  for  sale.  It  comprises  many  North  American 
plants  communicated  by  Muhlenberg  and  Torrey.  The  her- 
barium of  Schkuhr  was  bequeathed  to  the  university  of  Wit- 


EUROPEAN   HERBARIA.  19 

tenberg,  and  at  the  union  of  this  university  with  that  of  Halle 
was  transferred  to  the  latter,  where  it  remains  under  the  care 
of  Professor  von  Schlechtendal.  It  contains  a  large  portion 
of  the  Carices  described  and  figured  in  Schkuhr's  work,  and 
is  therefore  interesting  to  the  lovers  of  that  large  and  difficult 
genus.  The  American  specimens  were  mostly  derived  from 
Willdenow,  who  obtained  the  greater  portion  from  Muhlen- 
berg. 

The  royal  Prussian  herbarium  is  deposited  at  Schoneberg 
(a  little  village  in  the  environs  of  Berlin),  opposite  the  royal 
botanic  garden,  and  in  the  garden  of  the  Horticultural  Soci- 
ety. It  occupies  a  very  convenient  building  erected  for  its 
reception,  and  is  under  the  superintendence  of  Dr.  Klotzsch, 
a  very  zealous  and  promising  botanist.  It  comprises  three 
separate  herbaria,  namely,  the  general  herbarium,  the  herba- 
rium of  Willdenow,  and  the  Brazilian  herbarium  of  Sello. 
The  principal  contributions  of  the  plants  of  this  country  to 
the  general  herbarium,  garden  specimens  excepted,  consist  of 
the  collections  of  the  late  Mr.  Beyrich,  who  died  in  western 
Arkansas,  while  accompanying  Colonel  Dodge's  dragoon  expe- 
dition, and  a  collection  of  the  plants  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas 
by  Dr.  Engelmann,  now  of  St.  Louis  ;'  to  which  a  fine  selec- 
tion of  North  American  plants,  recently  presented  by  Sir 
William  Hooker,  has  been  added.  The  botanical  collections 
made  by  Chamisso,  who  accompanied  Romanzoff  in  his  voyage 
round  the  world,  also  enrich  this  herbarium ;  many  are  from 
the  coast  of  Russian  America  and  from  California  ;  and  they 
have  mostly  been  published  conjointly  by  the  late  Von 
Chamisso  and  Professor  Schlechtendal  in  the  "  Linnrea " 
edited  by  the  latter. 

The  late  Professor  Willdenow  enjoyed  for  many  years  the 
correspondence  of  Muhlenberg,  from  whom  he  received  the 
greater  part  of  his  North  American  specimens,  a  considerable 
portion  of  which  are  authentic  for  the  North  American  plants 
of  his  edition  of  the  "  Species  Plantarum."  In  addition  to  these 
we  find  in  his  herbarium  many  of  Michaux's  plants  commu- 
nicated by  Desfontaines,  several  from  the  German  collector 
Kinn,    and   perhaps   all  the  American   species  described  by 


20  ESS  A  vs. 

Willdenow  from  the  Berlin  garden.  It  also  comprises  a  por- 
tion of  the  herbarium  of  Pallas,  the  Siberian  plants  of  Stephen, 
and  a  tolerable  set  of  Humboldt's  plants.  .  This  herbarium  is 
in  good  preservation,  and  is  kept  in  perfect  order  and  extreme 
neatness.  As  left  by  Willdenow,  the  specimens  were  loose  in 
the  covers,  into  which  additional  specimens  had  sometimes 
been  thrown  and  the  labels  often  mixed,  so  that  much  caution 
is  requisite  to  ascertain  which  are  really  authentic  for  the 
Willdenovian  species.  To  prevent  farther  sources  of  error, 
and  to  secure  the  collection  from  injury,  it  was  carefully  re- 
vised by  Professor  Schlechtendal  while  under  his  manage- 
ment, and  the  specimens  attached  by  slips  of  paper  to  single 
sheets,  and  all  those  that  Willdenow  had  left  under  one  cover, 
as  the  same  species,  are  enclosed  in  a  double  sheet  of  neat  blue 
paper.  These  covers  are  numbered  continuously  throughout 
the  herbarium,  and  the  individual  sheets  or  specimens  in  each 
are  also  numbered,  so  that  any  plant  may  be  referred  to  by 
quoting  the  number  of  the  cover  and  that  of  the  sheet  to 
which  it  is  attached.  The  arrangement  of  the  herbarium  is 
unchanged,  and  it  precisely  accords  with  this  author's  edition 
of  the  "  Species  Plantarum."  Like  the  general  herbarium,  it 
is  kept  in  neat  portfolios,  the  back  of  which  consists  of  three 
pieces  of  broad  tape,  which,  passing  through  slits  near  each 
edge  of  the  covers,  are  tied  in  front :  by  this  arrangement 
their  thickness  may  be  varied  at  pleasure,  which,  though  of 
no  consequence  in  a  stationary  herbarium,  is  a  great  conven- 
ience in  a  growing  collection.  The  portfolios  are  placed  verti- 
cally on  shelves  protected  by  glass  doors,  and  the  contents  of 
each  are  marked  on  a  slip  of  paper  fastened  to  the  back. 
The  herbaria  occupy  a  suite  of  small  rooms  distinct  from  the 
working  rooms,  which  are  kept  perfectly  free  from  dust. 

Another  important  herbarium  at  Berlin  is  that  of  Pro- 
fessor Kunth,  which  is  scarcely  inferior  in  extent  to  the  royal 
collection  at  Schoneberg,  but  it  is  not  rich  or  authentic  in  the 
plants  of  this  country.  It  comprises  the  most  extensive  and 
authentic  set  of  Humboldt's  plants,  and  a  considerable  number 
of  Michaux's  which  were  received  from  the  younger  Richard. 
As  the  new  "  Enumeratio  Plantarum "  of  this  industrious 


EUROPEAN  HERBARIA.  21 

botanist  proceeds,  this  herbarium  will  become  still  more  im- 
portant. 

For  a  detailed  account  of  the  Russian  botanical  collections 
and  collectors,  we  may  refer  to  a  historical  sketch  of  the 
progress  of  botany  in  Russia,  etc.,  by  Mr.  Bongard,  the  super- 
intendent of  the  Imperial  Academy's  herbarium  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, published  in  the  "Recueil  des  Actes"  of  this  institution 
for  1834.  An  English  translation  of  this  memoir  is  published 
in  the  first  volume  of  Hooker's  "  Companion  to  the  Botanical 
Magazine." 


NOTES     OF    A     BOTANICAL     EXCURSION     TO     THE 
MOUNTAINS  OF   NORTH  CAROLINA.1 

The  peculiar  interest  you  2  have  long  taken  in  North  Amer- 
ican botany,  and  your  most  important  labors  in  its  eluci- 
dation, indicate  the  propriety  of  addressing  to  yourself  the 
following  remarks,  relating,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  hasty 
collections  made  by  Mr.  John  Carey,  Mr.  James  Constable, 
and  myself,  in  a  recent  excursion  to  the  higher  mountains  of 
North  Carolina.  Before  entering  upon  our  own  itinerary,  it 
may  be  well  to  notice  very  briefly  the  travels  of  those  who 
have  preceded  us  in  these  comparatively  unfrequented  re- 
gions. The  history  of  the  botany  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains would  be  at  once  interesting  and  on  many  accounts 
useful  to  the  cultivators  of  our  science  in  this  country ;  but 
with  my  present  inadequate  means,  I  can  only  offer  a  slight 
contribution  towards  that  object. 

So  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  the  younger  (William)  Bar  tram 
was  the  first  botanist  who  visited  the  southern  portion  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.  Under  the  auspices  of  Dr.  Fother- 
gill,  to  whom  his  collections  were  principally  sent,  and  with 
whom  his  then  surviving  father  had  previously  corresponded, 
Mr.  Bartram  left  Philadelphia  in  1773,  and  after  traveling 
in  Florida  and  the  lower  part  of  Georgia  for  three  years,  he 
made  a  transient  visit  to  the  Cherokee  country,  in  the  spring 
of  1776.  In  tins  journey  he  ascended  the  Seneca  or  Keowee 
River,  one  of  the  principal  sources  of  the  Savannah,  and 
crossing  the  mountains  which  divide  its  waters  from  those  of 
the  Tennessee,  continued  his  travels  along  the  course  of  the 
latter  to  the  borders  of  the  present  State  of  Tennessee. 
Finding  that  his  researches  could  not  safely  be  extended  in 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  xlii.  1.     (1842.) 

2  Sir  W.  J.  Hooker. 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION   TO   NORTH   CAROLINA.     23 

this  direction,  after  exploring  some  of  the  higher  mountains 
in  the  neighborhood,  he  retraced  his  steps  to  the  Savannah 
River,  proceeding  thence  through  Georgia  and  Alabama  to 
Mobile.  His  well-known  and  very  interesting  volume  of 
travels :  contains  numerous  observations  upon  the  botany  of 
these  regions,  with  occasional  popular  descriptions,  and  in  a 
few  cases  Latin  characters  of  some  remarkable  plants  ;  as, 
for  example,  the  Rhododendron  punctatum  (which  he  calls 
11.  ferruqineuni),  Stuartia  pentagyna  (under  the  name  of 
S.  montana*),  Azalea  calendulacea  (which  he  terms  A.  flam- 
meet),  Trautvetteria,  which  he  took  for  a  new  species  of 
Hydrastris,  Magnolia  auriculata,  etc.  He  also  notices  the 
remarkable  intermixture  of  the  vegetation  of  the  north  and 
south,  which  occurs  in  this  portion  of  the  mountains  where 
Halesia,  Sty  rax,  Stuartia,  and  Gelseminum  (although  the  lat- 
ter "  is  killed  by  a  very  slight  frost  in  the  open  air  in  Penn- 
sylvania") are  seen  flourishing  by  the  side  of  Birches, 
Maples,  and  Firs  of  Canada. 

I  should  next  mention  the  name  of  Andre  Michaux,  who 
at  an  early  period,  amid  difficulties  and  privations  of  which 
few  can  now  form  an  adequate  conception,  explored  our  coun- 
try from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Florida,  and  westward  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, more  extensively  than  any  subsequent  botanist.  A 
few  of  his  plants  have  not  yet  been  rediscovered,  and  a  con- 
siderable number  remain  among  the  rarest  and  least  known 
species  of  the  United  States  ;  it  may  therefore  be  useful  to 
give  a  particular  account  of  his  peregrinations,  especially 
through  the  mountain  region  which  he  so  diligently  explored, 
and  in  which  he  made  such  important  discoveries.  For  this 
purpose  I  am  fortunately  supplied  with  sufficient  materials, 
having  had  the  opportunity  of  consulting  the  original  journals 
of  Michaux,  presented  by  his  son  to  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society.  I  am  indebted  for  this  privilege  to  the  kind- 
ness of  John  Vaughn,  Esq.,  the  secretary  of  the  society,  who 
directed  my  attention  to  these  manuscripts,  and  permitted  me 

1  "  Travels  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  East  and 
West  Florida,  the  Cherokee  Country,"  etc.  By  William  Bartram.  Phila- 
delphia, 1791. 


24  ESS  A  YS. 

to  extract  freely  whatever  I  deemed  useful  and  interesting. 
The  first  fasciculus  of  the  diary  is  wanting;  but  we  learn 
from  a  chance  record,  as  well  as  from  published  sources,1 
that  he  embarked  at  L'Orient  on  the  29th  of  September, 
1785,  and  arrived  in  New  York  on  the  13th  of  November. 
The  private  journal  from  which  the  following  information  is 
derived  commences  in  April,  1787  ;  prior  to  which  date  he 
had  established  two  gardens,  or  nurseries,  to  receive  his  col- 
lections of  living  plants  until  they  could  be  conveniently 
transported  to  France  :  one  in  New  Jersey,  near  the  city  of 
New  York ;  the  other  about  ten  miles  from  Charleston, 
South  Carolina.  Into  the  latter  it  appears  he  introduced 
some  exotic  trees,  which  he  thought  suitable  to  the  climate ; 
and  the  younger  Michaux,  who  visited  this  garden  several 
years  afterwards,  mentions  two  Ginkgos  QSalisburia  adianti- 
folia),  which  in  seven  years  had  attained  an  elevation  of 
thirty  feet ;  also  some  fine  specimens  of  Sterculia  platani- 
folia,  and  a  large  number  of  young  plants  of  Mimosa  Juli- 
brissin,  propagated  from  a  tree  which  his  father  had  brought 
from  Europe.  From  this  stock,  probably,  the  latter  has  been 
disseminated  throughout  the  southern  States,  and  is  begin- 
ning to  be  naturalized  in  many  places. 

1  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  what  portions  of  the  coun- 
try Michaux  had  visited  previously  to  April,  1787,  when  he 
set  out  from  Charleston  on  his  first  journey  to  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains,  by  way  of  Savannah,  ascending  the  river  of 
that  name  to  its  sources  in  the  Cherokee  country,  and  follow- 
ing very  nearly  the  route  taken  by  Bartram  eleven  years  be- 
fore.2    He  reached  the  sources  of  the  Keowee  River  on  the 

i  See  Michaux,  "  Flora  Boreali- Americana "  ;  Introduction.  See  also 
"A  Sketch  of  the  Progress  of  Botany  in  Western  America,"  by  Dr. 
Short,  in  the  "  Transylvania  Journal  of  Medicine,"  No.  35  ;  and  in 
Hooker's  "  Journal  of  Botany  "  for  November,  1840.  I  am  informed  that 
an  interesting  notice  of  Michaux  is  contained  in  the  8th  volume  of  the 
"  Dictionnaire  Encvelopedique  de  Botanique  "  (under  the  head  of  Voya- 
geurs)  ;  a  work  which  unfortunately  I  am  not  able  at  this  moment  to 
consult. 

2  In  this  journey  he  was  accompanied  by  his  son,  who  shortly  after- 
wards returned  to  Europe.     Before  they  reached  Augusta,  their  horses 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     25 

14th  of  June,  and  was  conducted  by  the  Indians  across  the 
mountains  to  the  head  of  the  Tugaloo  (the  other  principal 
branch  of  the  Savannah),  and  thence  to  the  waters  of  the 
Tennessee.  After  suffering  much  inconvenience  from  unfa- 
vorable weather  and  the  want  of  food,  he  returned  to  the 
Indian  village  of  Seneca  by  way  of  Cane  Creek,  descended 
along  the  Savannah  to  Augusta,  and  arrived  at  Charleston  on 
the  1st  of  July.  His  notes  in  this  as  well  as  in  subsequent 
journeys  to  the  mountains  often  contain  remarks  upon  the 
more  interesting  plants  he  discovered ;  and  in  some  cases 
their  localities  are  so  carefully  specified  that  they  might  still 
be  sought  with  confidence.  On  the  16th  of  July  he  embarked 
for  Philadelphia,  which  he  reached  on  the  27th;  and,  after 
visiting  Mr.  Bartram,  traveled  to  New  York,  arriving  at  the 
garden  he  had  established  in  New  Jersey  about  the  1st  of 
August.  Returning  by  water  to  Charleston  the  same  month, 
he  remained  in  that  vicinity  until  February,  1788,  when  he 
embarked  for  St.  Augustine,  and  was  busily  occupied,  during 
this  spring,  in  exploring  east  Florida.  His  journal  mentions 
several  sub-tropical  plants,  now  well  known  to  be  indigenous 
to  Florida,  but  which  are  not  noticed  in  his  Flora :  such  as 
the  Mangrove  Guilandina  Bonduc,  Sophora  ocdderttalis, 
two  or  three  Ferns,  and  especially  the  Orange.1  Leaving 
Florida  at  the  beginning  of  June,  he  returned  by  land  to 
Savannah  and  Charleston,  where  he  was  confined  by  sickness 
the  remainder  of  the  summer.  Late  in  the  autumn,  however, 
he  made  a  second  excursion  to  the  sources  of  the  Savannah, 
chiefly  to  obtain  the  roots  and  seeds  of  the  remarkable  plants 
he  had  previously  discovered.  He  pursued  the  same  route  as 
before,  except  that  he   ascended  the  Tugaloo,  instead  of  the 

were  stolen,  a  misfortune  which,  it  appears  from  Michaux's  remarks,  was 
of  no  uncommon  occurrence  in  those  days  ;  and  they  were  obliged  to  pur- 
sue their  journey  to  that  place  on  foot.  On  the  way  he  discovered  "a 
shrubby  Rumex,"  which  he  terms  Lapathum  occidental  ;  doubtless  the 
Polygonella  parvifolia  of  his  Flora,  and  also  the  Polygonum  polygamum  of 
Ventenat. 

1  "Les  bois  etoient  remplis  d'oranges  aigres,"  etc.  Michaux,  MSS. 
See  also  Bartram's  "  Travels  "  ;  and  Torrey  &  Gray,  "  Flora  of  North 
America,"  i.  p.  222. 


26  ESS  A  VS. 

Seneca  or  Keowee  River,  crossing  over  to  the  latter ;  and, 
climbing  the  higher  mountains  about  its  sources  in  the  inclem- 
ent month  of  December,  when  they  were  mostly  covered  with 
snow,  he  at  length  found  some  trees  of  Magnolia  cordata,  to 
obtain  which  was  the  principal  object  of  this  arduous  journey. 
Retracing  his  steps,  he  reached  Charleston  at  the  end  of 
December,  with  a  large  collection  of  living  trees,  roots,  and 
seeds.  The  remainder  of  the  winter  Michaux  passed  in  the 
Bahama  Islands,  returning  to  Charleston  in  the  month  of 
May.  Early  in  June  he  set  out  upon  a  journey  to  a  different 
portion  of  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  by  way  of  Cam- 
den, Charlotte  (the  county  seat  of  Mecklenburg),  and  Mor- 
ganton,  reaching  the  higher  mountains  at  "  Turkey  Cove, 
thirty  miles  from  Burke  Court  House  "  (probably  the  head 
of  Turkey  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Catawba),  on  the  15th  of 
June.  From  this  place  he  made  an  excursion  to  the  Black 
Mountain,  in  what  is  now  Yancey  County,  and  afterwards  to 
the  Yellow  Mountain,  which  Michaux  at  that  time  considered 
to  be  the  highest  mountain  in  the  United  States.  If  the 
Roan  be  included  in  the  latter  appellation,  as  I  believe  it 
often  has  been,  this  opinion  is  not  far  from  the  truth ;  since 
the  Black  Mountain  alone  exceeds  it,  according  to  Professor 
Mitchell's  recent  measurements.  Descending  this  elevated 
range  on  the  Tennessee  side,  and  traveling  for  the  most  part 
throuffh  an  unbroken  wilderness,  near  the  end  of  June  he 
reached  the  Block  House  on  the  Holston,  famous  in  the  an- 
nals of  border  warfare.  Several  persons  had  been  killed  by 
the  Indians  during  the  preceding  week,  and  general  alarm 
prevailing,  Michaux  abandoned  his  intention  of  penetrating 
into  Kentucky,  and  resolved  to  botanize  for  a  time  in  the 
mountains  of  Virginia.  He  accordingly  entered  that  State, 
and  arrived  on  the  1st  of  July  at  "  Washington  Court  House, 
premiere  ville  dans  la  Virginie  que  Ton  trouve  sur  la  cote 
occidentale  des  montagnes,  en  sortant  de  la  Carolinie  Sep- 
tentrionale."  To  this  he  adds  the  following  note  :  "  Premiere 
ville,  si  Ton  peut  nommer  ville  une  Bourgade  composee  de 
douze  maisons  (log-houses).  Dans  cette  ville  on  ne  mange 
que  de  pain  de  Mays.     II  n'y  a  viande  fraiche,  ni  cidre,  mais 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION  TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     27 

seulement  du  mauvais  Rum."  Abingdon,  the  county  seat  of 
Washington  County,  is  now  a  flourishing  town  ;  but  Mi- 
chaux's  remarks  are  still  applicable  to  more  than  one  pre- 
miere ville  in  this  region.  From  this  place  he  continued  his 
course  along  the  valley  of  Virginia  throughout  its  whole  ex- 
tent, crossing  New  River,  the  Roanoke,  and  passing  by  Nat- 
ural Bridge,  Lexington,  Staunton,  and  Winchester  ;  thence  by 
way  of  Frederick  in  Maryland,  and  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
he  arrived  at  Philadelphia  on  the  21st  of  July,  and  at  New 
York  on  the  30th.  In  August  and  September  he  returned  to 
Charleston  by  way  of  Baltimore,  Alexandria,  Richmond,  and 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina.  In  November  he  revisited  the 
mountains  explored  early  in  the  preceding  summer,  passing 
through  Charlotte,  Lincolnton,  and  Morganton,  to  his  former 
headquarters  at  Turkey  Cove  ;  from  whence  he  visited  the 
north  branch  of  Catawba  (North  Cove,  between  Linville 
Mountain  and  the  Blue  Ridge  ?),  the  Black  Mountain,  Toe 
River,  etc. ;  and  returned  to  Charleston  in  December,  with 
two  thousand  five  hundred  young  trees,  shrubs,  and  other 
plants.  From  January  until  April,  1791,  this  indefatigable 
botanist  remained  in  the  vicinity  of  Charleston ;  but  his 
memoranda  for  the  remainder  of  that  year  are  unfortunately 
wanting.  The  earliest  succeeding  date  I  have  been  able  to 
find  is  March  22, 1792,  when  he  sold  the  "  Jardin  du  Roi "  at 
Charleston,  and  going  shortly  afterwards  by  water  to  Phila- 
delphia, he  botanized  in  New  Jersey  and  around  New  York 
until  the  close  of  May.  In  the  beginning  of  June  he  visited 
Milford,  Connecticut,  to  procure  information  from  a  Mr. 
Peter  Pound,  who  had  traveled  far  in  the  northwest;  and 
at  New  Haven  took  passage  in  a  sloop  for  Albairy,  where  he 
arrived  on  the  14th  of  June  (having  botanized  on  the  way 
at  West  Point,  Poughkeepsie,  etc.)  ;  on  the  18th  he  was 
at  Saratoga;  on  the  20th  he  embarked  at  Skenesborough 
(Whitehall),  botanized  more  or  less  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Champlain,  reaching  Montreal  on  the  30th  of  June,  and  Que- 
bec on  the  16th  of  July.1     The  remainder  of  this  season  was 

1  Among  the  plants  collected  in  this  journey,  he  particularly  mentions 
having  found  Aconitum  uncinatum  near  Quebec  ;  but    in   the   Flora    no 


28  ESS  A  YS. 

devoted  to  an  examination  of  the  region  between  Quebec  and 
Hudson's  Bay,  the  botany  of  which,  as  is  well  known,  he  was 
the  first  to  investigate.  His  journal  comprises  a  full  and 
very  interesting  account  of  the  physical  geography  and  vege- 
tation of  that  inclement  district. 

Leaving  Quebec  in  October,  and  returning  by  the  same 
route,  we  find  our  persevering  traveler  at  Philadelphia  early 
in  December.  It  appears  that  he  now  meditated  a  most  for- 
midable journey,  and  made  the  following  proposition  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  :  "  Propose  a  plusieurs  mem- 
bres  de  la  Societe  Philosophique  les  avantages  pour  les  Etats- 
Unis  d'avoir  des  informations  geographiques  cles  pays  a  Fouest 
de  Mississippi,  et  demande  qu'ils  aient  a  endosser  mes  traites 
pour  la  somme  de  X3600,  si  je  suis  dispose  a  voyager  aux 
sources  du  Missouri,  et  meme  rechercher  les  rivieres  qui 
coulent  vers  1'ocean  Pacifique.  Ma  proposition  ayant  6te 
accepte,  j'ai  donne  a  Mr.  Jefferson,  Secretaire  d'Etat,  les 
conditions  auxquels  je  suis  dispose  a  entreprendre  ce  voyage. 
.  .  .  J'offre  de  communiquer  toutes  les  connoisances  et  infor- 
mations geographiques  a  la  Societe  Philosophique  ;  et  je  re- 
serve a  mon  profit  toutes  les  connoisances  en  histoire  naturelle 
que  j'acquirerai  dans  ce  voyage."  Remaining  in  Philadelphia 
and  its  vicinity  until  the  following  summer,  he  set  out  for 
Kentucky  in  July,  1793,  with  the  object  of  exploring  the 
western  States  (which  no  botanist  had  yet  visited),  and  also 
of  conferring  with  General  Clarke  (at  Mr.  Jefferson's  re- 
quest) on  the  subject  of  his  contemplated  journey  to  the 
Eocky  Mountains.  He  crossed  the  Alleghanies  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, descended  the  Ohio  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  traversed 
that  State  and  western  Virginia  to  Abingdon,  and  again  trav- 
eled through  the  valley  of  Virginia  to  Winchester,  Harper's 
Ferry,  etc.,  arriving  at  Philadelphia  on  the  12th  of  December 
of  the  same  year.  Conferences  respecting  his  projected  expe- 
dition were  now  renewed,  in  which  Mr.  Genet,  the  envoy  from 
the  French  republic,  took  prominent  part ;  but  here  the  mat- 
other  locality  is  given  than  the  high  mountains  of  North  Carolina.  Major 
Le  Conte  found  it  several  years  ago  in  the  southwestern  part  of  New 
York,  and  Mr.  Lapham  has  recently  detected  it  in  Wisconsin. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.    29 

ter  seems  to  have  dropped,  since  no  further  reference  is  made 
to  the  subject  in  the  journal ;  and  Michaux  left  Philadelphia 
in  February,  1794,  on  another  tour  to  the  southern  States. 
In  July  of  that  year  he  again  visited  the  mountains  of  North 
Carolina,  traveling  from  Charleston  to  Turkey  Cove  by  his 
old  route.  On  this  occasion  he  ascended  the  Linville  Moun- 
tain, and  the  other  mountains  in  the  neighborhood ;  but  hav- 
ing "  differe  a  cause  du  manque  des  provisions,"  he  left  his 
old  quarters  (at  Ains worth's),  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  es- 
tablished himself  at  Crab  Orchard  on  Doe  River.  From  this 
place  he  revisited  the  Black  Mountain,  and,  accompanied  by 
his  new  guide,  Davenport,  explored  the  Yellow  Mountain,  the 
Roan,  and  finally  the  Grandfather,  the  summit  of  which  he 
attained  on  the  30th  of  August.1  Returning  to  the  house  of 
his  guide,  he  visited  Table  Mountain  on  the  5th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  proceeded  (by  way  of  Morganton,  Lincolnton,  Salis- 
bury, and  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina)  to  Charleston,  where 
he  passed  the  winter. 

On  the  nineteenth  day  of  April,  1795,  our  indefatigable 
traveler  again  set  out,  reached  the  Santee  River  at  Nelson's 
Ferry,  ascended  the  Wateree,  or  Catawba,  to  Flat  Rock  Creek, 
visited  Flat  Rock,2  crossed  Hanging-Rock  Creek,  and  ascended 

1  His  earlier  journals  are  full  of  expressions  of  loyalty  to  the  king  un- 
der whose  patronage  his  travels  were  undertaken  ;  but  now  transformed 
into  a  republican  :  "  Monte*  au  sommet  de  la  plus  haute  montagne  de 
toute  l'Amerique  Septentrionale,  chantd  avec  mon  compagnon-guide 
l'hymne  de  Marseillois,  et  end,  '  Vive  la  Libert^  et  la  llepublique  Fran- 
caise.'  "  If  this  enthusiasm  were  called  forth  by  mere  elevation,  he  should 
have  chanted  his  pseans  on  the  Black  Mountain  and  the  Roan,  both  of 
which  are  higher  than  the  Grandfather. 

2  I  believe  this  is  the  only  instance  in  which  the  name  of  Flat  Rock 
occurs  in  Michaux's  journal  ;  it  is  in  South  Carolina,  not  far  from  Cam- 
den. Here,  without  doubt,  he  discovered  Sedum  pusillum  (Diamorpha, 
Nutt.),  the  habitat  of  which  is  said  to  be  "  in  Carolina  Septentrionali,  loco 
dicto  Flat  Rock."  Mr.  Nuttall,  who  subsequently  collected  the  plant  at 
the  same  locality,  inadvertently  continued  this  mistake,  by  assigning  the 
habitat,  "  Flat  Rock  near  Camden,  North  Carolina,"  as  well  in  his  "  Gen- 
era of  North  American  Plants,"  as  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Short  on  this  subject. 
(Vide  Short  on  Western  Botany,  in  the  "  Transylvania  Journal  of  Medi- 
cine," and  in  Hooker's  "  Journal  of  Botany  "  for  November,  1840,  p.  103.) 


30  ESS  A  YS. 

the  Little  Catawba  to  Lincolnton.  In  the  early  part  of  May 
he  revisited  Linville  Mountain,  the  Yellow  Mountain,  the 
Roan,  and  some  others,  and  then  descended  Doe  River  and 
the  Holston  to  Knoxville,  Tennessee.  Thence,  crossing  the 
Cumberland  Mountains,  and  a  wilderness  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  in  extent,  he  arrived  at  Nashville  on  the  lGth  of 
June,  at  Danville,  Kentucky,  on  the  27th,  and  at  Louisville 
on  the  20th  of  July.  In  August  he  ascended  the  Wabash  to 
Vincennes,  crossed  the  country  to  the  Illinois  River,  and  de- 
voted the  months  of  September,  October,  and  November  to 
diligent  herborizations  along  the  course  of  that  river,  the 
Mississippi,  the  lower  part  of  the  Ohio,  and  throughout  the 
country  included  by  these  rivers.  In  December  he  descended 
the  Mississippi  in  a  small  boat  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and 
ascended  the  latter  and  the  Cumberland  to  Clarksville,  which 
he  reached  on  the  10th  of  January,  1796,  after  a  perilous 
voyage  in  the  most  inclement  weather.  Leaving  that  place 
on  the  16th,  he  arrived  at  Nashville  on  the  19th  of  January  ; 
and  after  making  a  journey  to  Louisville  and  back  again,  he 
started  for  Carolina  at  the  close  of  February,  crossed  the 
Cumberland  Mountains  early  in  March,  reached  Knoxville  on 
the  8th,  Greenville  on  the  18th,  Jonesborough  on  the  19th, 
and  on  the  22d  crossed  the  Iron  Mountains  into  North 
Carolina,  descended  Cane  Creek  (which  rises  in  the  Roan), 
and  spent  several  days  in  exploring  the  mountains  in  the 
vicinity,  with  his  former  guide,  Davenport.  In  April  he  re- 
turned to  Charleston  by  his  usual  route ;  and  on  the  13th  of 
August  embarked  for  Amsterdam  in  the  ship  Ophir.  This 
vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Holland,  on  the  10th  of 
October,  and  Michaux  lost  a  part  of  the  collections  he  had 
with  him ;  on  the  23d  of  December,  1796,  he  arrived  at  Paris 

Hence  some  confusion  has  arisen  respecting  the  locality  of  this  interesting 
plant,  since  there  is  both  a  Flat  Rock  and  a  village  named  Camden  in 
North  Carolina,  although  the  two  are  widely  separated.  After  all, 
Pursh's  habitat,  "  on  flat  rocks  in  North  Carolina,  and  elsewhere,"  proves 
sufficiently  correct,  since  Mr.  Nuttall  himself,  and  also  Mr.  Curtis  and 
others,  have  subsequently  obtained  it  in  such  situations  near  Salisbury  in 
that  State,  and  Dr.  Leavenworth  found  it  abundantly  throughout  the  upper 
district  of  Georgia. 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION   TO   NORTH  CAROLINA.     31 

with  the  portion  he  had  saved.  This  notice  of  the  travels  of 
Michaux  on  this  continent  will  suffice  to  show  with  what  un- 
tiring zeal  and  assiduity  his  laborious  researches  were  prose- 
cuted ;  it  should,  however,  be  remarked,  that  greater  facilities 
were  afforded  him,  in  some  important  respects,  than  any  sub- 
sequent botanist  has  enjoyed  ;  the  expenses  of  his  journey 
having  been  entirely  defrayed  by  the  French  government, 
under  whose  auspices  and  direction  they  were  undertaken. 

The  name  of  Fraser,  so  familiar  in  the  annals  of  North 
American  botany,  ought,  perhaps,  to  have  preceded  that  of 
Michaux  in  our  brief  sketch ;  since  the  elder  Mr.  Fraser,  who 
had  visited  Newfoundland  previous  to  the  year  1784,  com- 
menced his  researches  in  the  southern  States  as  early  as 
1785  ;  and  Michaux,  on  his  first  expedition  to  the  mountains 
in  1787,  speaks  as  having  traveled  in  his  company  for  several 
days.  We  believe,  however,  that  he  did  not  explore  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains  until  1789.  Under  the  patronage  of  the 
Russian  government,  he  returned  to  this  country  in  1799, 
accompanied  by  his  eldest  son,  and  revisited  the  mountains, 
ascending  the  beautiful  Roan,  where,  "on  a  spot  which  com- 
mands a  view  of  five  States,  namely,  Kentucky,  Virginia, 
Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina,  the  eye  rang- 
ing to  a  distance  of  seventy  or  eighty  miles  when  the  air  is 
clear,  it  was  Mr.  Fraser's  good  fortune  to  discover  and  collect 
living  specimens  of  the  new  and  splendid  Rhododendron 
Catawbiense,  from  which  so  many  beautiful  hybrid  varieties 
have  since  been  obtained  by  skilful  cultivators."  1  The  father 
and  son  revisited  the  southern  States  in  1807  ;  and  the  lat- 
ter, after  the  decease  of  the  father  in  1811,  returned  to  this 
country,  and  continued  his  indefatigable  researches  until 
1817. 

Many  of  the  rarest  plants  of  these  mountains  were  made 

1  "Biographical  Sketch  of  John  Fraser,  the  Botanical  Collector,"  in 
Hooker's  "  Companion  to  the  Botanical  Magazine,"  vol.  ii.  p.  300 :  an 
article  from  which  I  have  derived  nearly  all  the  information  I  possess  re- 
specting the  researches  of  the  Frasers  in  this  country,  and  to  which  the 
reader  is  referred  for  more  particular  information.  A  full  list  of  the 
North  American  plants  introduced  into  England  by  the  father  and  son,  is 
appended  to  that  account. 


32  ESS  A  YS. 

known  especially  to  English  gardens  and  collections,  by  Mr. 
John  Lyon,  whose  indefatigable  researches  are  highly  spoken 
of  by  Pursh,  Nuttall,  and  Elliott.  It  is  very  probable  that  he 
had  visited  the  mountains  previous  to  his  assuming  the  charge 
of  Mr.  Hamilton's  collections  near  Philadelphia,  which  he 
resigned  to  Pursh  in  1802.  At  a  later  period,  however,  he 
assiduously  explored  this  region,  from  Georgia  as  far  north  at 
least  as  the  Grandfather  Mountain ;  and  died  at  Asheville  in 
Buncombe  County,  North  Carolina,  some  time  between  1814 
and  1818.  I  am  informed  by  my  friend,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Curtis, 
that  his  journals  and  a  portion  of  his  herbarium  were  preserved 
at  Asheville  for  many  years,  and  that  it  is  probable  that  they 
may  yet  be  found. 

Michaux  the  younger,  author  of  the  "  Sylva  Americana," 
who  accompanied  his  father  in  some  of  his  earlier  journeys, 
returned  to  this  country  in  1801,  and  crossed  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  twice  ;  first  in  Pennsylvania  on  his  way  to  the 
western  States,  and  the  next  year  in  North  Carolina  on  his 
return  to  the  seaboard.  In  crossing  from  Jonesboro',  Tennes- 
see, to  Morganton,  by  way  of  Toe  River  (not  Doe  River  as  is 
stated  in  his  Travels),  he  accidentally  stopped  at  the  house  of 
Davenport,  his  father's  guide  in  these  mountains.  The  obser- 
vations of  the  younger  Michaux  on  this  part  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  in  a  chapter  of  his  Travels  devoted  to  that  subject, 
are  mainly  accurate. 

"  In  the  beginning  of  1805,"  Pursh,  as  he  states  in  the 
preface  to  his  Flora,  "  set  out  for  the  mountains  and  western 
territories  of  the  southern  States,  beginning  at  Maryland  and 
extending  to  the  Carolinas  (in  which  tract  the  interesting 
high  mountains  of  Virginia  and  Carolina  took  my  particular 
attention),  and  returning  late  in  the  autumn  through  the 
lower  countries  along  the  seacoast  to  Philadelphia."  This 
plan,  however,  was  not  fully  carried  out,  since  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  crossed  the  Alleghanies  into  the  great  western 
valley,  nor  to  have  botanized  along  these  mountains  farther 
south  than  where  the  New  River  crosses  the  valley  of  Virginia. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  the  original  tickets  of  his  speci- 
mens in  the  herbarium  of  the  late  Professor  Barton,  under 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     33 

whose  patronage  he  traveled,  as  well  as  those  in  Mr.  Lam- 
bert's herbarium,  furnish  no  evidence  that  he  extended  his 
researches  into  the  mountainous  portion  of  North  Carolina  ; 
but  it  appears  probable  (from  some  labels  marked  Halifax 
or  Mecklenburg,  Virginia)  that  he  followed  the  course  of  the 
Roanoke  into  the  former  State.  His  most  interesting  col- 
lections were  made  at  Harper's  Ferry,  Natural  Bridge,  the 
Peaked  Mountains  (which  separate  the  two  principal  branches 
of  the  Shenandoah),  the  Peaks  of  Otter,  in  the  Blue  Ridge  ; 
also,  Cove  Mountain,  Salt  Pond  Mountain,  and  Parnell's 
Knob  (with  the  situation  of  which  I  am  unacquainted),  the 
region  around  the  Warm  Sulphur  Springs,  Capon  Springs, 
the  Sweet  Springs,  and  the  mountains  of  Monroe  and  Green- 
brier counties. 

Early  in  the  present  century,  Mr.  Kin,  a  German  nurserj^- 
man  and  collector,  resident  at  Philadelphia,  traveled  some- 
what extensively  among  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  chiefly  for 
the  purpose  of  obtaining  living  plants  and  seeds.  He  also 
collected  many  interesting  specimens,  which  may  be  found  in 
the  herbaria  of  Muhlenberg  and  Willdenow,  where  his  tickets 
may  be  recognized  by  the  orthography,  and  the  amusing  mix- 
ture of  bad  English  and  German  (with  occasionally  some 
very  singular  Latin)  in  which  his  observations  are  written. 

In  the  winter  of  1816,  Mr.  Nuttall  crossed  the  mountains 
of  North  Carolina  from  the  west,  ascending  the  French  Broad 
River  (along  the  banks  of  which  he  obtained  his  PMladelphus 
hirsutus,  etc.)  to  Asheville,  passing  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  ex- 
ploring the  Table  Mountain,  where  he  discovered  Hudsonia 
montana,  etc.,  and  collected  many  other  rare  and  interesting 
plants.1 

As  early  as  1817,  the  mountains  at  the  sources  of  the  Sa- 
luda River  were  visited  by  the  late  Dr.  MacBride,  the  friend 

1  The  spur  of  the  Blue  Ridge  from  which  the  picturesque  Table  Moun- 
tain rises  like  a  tower,  is  called  by  Mr.  Nuttall  the  Catawba  Ridge.  I 
am  informed,  however,  by  my  friend  Mr.  Curtis,  who  is  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  this  interesting  region,  that  it  is  not  known  by  that  name, 
but  is  called  the  Table  Mountain  Ridge.  Its  base  is  not  washed  by  the 
Catawba  River,  but  by  its  tributary  the  Linville. 


34  ESS  A  YS. 

and  correspondent  of  Elliott ;  who,  in  the  preface  to  the 
second  volume  of  his  "  Sketch,"  renders  an  affecting  and  de- 
served tribute  to  his  memory,  and  acknowledges  the  important 
services  which  he  had  rendered  to  that  work  during  its  pro- 
gress. 

The  name  of  Bafmesque  should  also  be  mentioned  in  this 
connection  ;  since  that  botanist  crossed  the  Alleghanies  four 
or  five  times  between  1818  and  1833  (in  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, and  the  north  of  Virginia),  and  also  explored  the  Cum- 
berland Mountains. 

A  few  years  since,  the  Peaks  of  Otter,  in  Virginia,  were 
visited  by  Mr.  S.  B.  Buckley  ;  and  still  more  recently  the 
same  botanist  has  explored  the  mountains  in  the  upper  part 
of  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and  the  adjacent  borders  of  North 
Carolina.  Among  the  interesting  contributions  which  the 
authors  of  the  "  Flora  of  North  America  "  have  received  from 
this  source,  I  may  here  mention  the  Coreopsis  latifolia  of 
Michaux,  which  had  not  been  found  by  any  subsequent  bot- 
anist until  it  was  observed  by  Mr.  Buckley  in  the  autumn  of 
1840. 

No  living  botanist,  however,  is  so  well  acquainted  with 
the  vegetation  of  the  southern  Alleghany  Mountains,  or  has 
explored  those  of  North  Carolina  so  extensively,  as  the  Rev. 
Mr.  M.  A.  Curtis ;  who,  when  resident  for  a  short  time  in 
their  vicinity,  visited,  as  opportunity  occurred,  the  Table 
Mountain,  Grandfather,  the  Yellow  Mountain,  the  Roan,  the 
Black  Mountain,  etc.,  and  subsequently  (although  prevented 
by  infirm  health  from  making  large  collections)  extended  his 
researches  through  the  counties  of  Haywood,  Macon,  and 
Cherokee,  which  form  the  narrow  southwestern  extremity  of 
North  Carolina.  To  him  we  are  indebted  for  local  informa- 
tion which  greatly  facilitated  our  recent  journey,  and,  indeed, 
for  a  complete  itinerarium  of  the  region  south  of  Ashe  County. 
But,  as  the  latter  county  had  not  been  visited  by  Mr.  Curtis, 
nor  so  far  as  we  are  aware  by  any  other  botanist,  and  being 
from  its  situation  the  most  accessible  to  the  traveler  from  the 
north,  we  determined  to  devote  to  its  examination  the  princi- 
pal part  of  the  time  allotted  to  our  own  excursion. 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     35 

Intending  to  reach  this  remote  region  by  the  way  of  the 
Valley  of  Virginia,  we  left  New  York  on  the  evening  of  the 
22d  of  June,  and  traveling  by  railroad,  reached  Winchester, 
a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles,  before  sunset  of  the  follow- 
ing day.  At  Harper's  Ferry,  where  the  Potomac,  joined  by 
the  Shenandoah,  forces  its  way  through  the  Blue  Ridge,  in  the 
midst  of  some  of  the  most  picturesque  scenery  in  the  United 
States,  we  merely  stopped  to  dine,  and  were  therefore  disap- 
pointed in  our  hope  of  collecting  Sethim  telephoides,  S.  pul- 
chellum,  Paronychia  dichotoma,  and  Draba  ramosixshna,  all 
of  which  grow  here  upon  the  rocks.  We  observed  the  first 
in  passing,  but  it  was  not  yet  in  flower.  On  the  rocky  banks 
of  the  Potomac  below  Harper's  Ferry,  we  saw  for  the  first 
time  the  common  Locust-tree  (Pobinia  Pseudacacia)  de- 
cidedly indigenous.  It  probably  extends  to  the  southern  con- 
fines of  Pennsylvania ;  and  from  this  point  south  it  is  every- 
where abundant,  but  we  did  not  meet  with  it  east  of  the  Blue 
Ridge.  From  Winchester,  the  shiretown  of  Frederick  County, 
we  proceeded  by  stage-coach  directly  up  the  Valley  of  Virginia, 
as  that  portion  of  the  State  is  called  which  lies  between  the 
unbroken  Blue  Ridge  and  the  most  easterly  ranges  of  the 
Alleghanies.  From  the  Potomac  to  the  sources  of  the  She- 
nandoah it  is,  strictly  speaking,  a  valley,  from  twenty  to  thirty 
miles  in  width,  with  a  strong,  chiefly  limestone  soil  of  great 
fertility.  It  is  scarcely  interrupted,  indeed,  up  to  where  the 
Roanoke  rises  ;  but  a  branch  of  the  Alleghanies  intervenes 
between  the  latter  and  New  River,  as  the  upper  part  of  the 
Great  Kenawha  is  termed,  from  which  point  it  loses  its  char- 
acter in  some  degree,  and  is  exclusively  traversed  by  the 
western  waters.  The  same  valley  extends  to  the  north  and 
east  through  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  and  even  into  the 
State  of  New  York,  preserving  throughout  the  same  geological 
character  and  fertile  soil.  Our  first  day's  ride  was  to  Harri- 
sonburg, in  Rockingham  County,  a  distance  of  sixty-nine  miles 
from  Winchester.  From  the  moment  we  entered  the  valley,  we 
observed  such  immense  quantities  of  Echium  vvlgare,  that  we 
were  no  longer  surprised  at  the  doubt  expressed  by  Pursh 
whether  it  was  really  an  introduced  plant.    This  "  vile  foreign 


36  ESSA  VS. 

weed,"  as  Dr.  Darlington,  agriculturally  speaking,  terms  this 
showy  plant,  is  occasionally  seen  along  the  roadside  in  the 
northern  States  ;  but  here,  for  the  distance  of  more  than  a 
hundred  miles,  it  has  taken  complete  possession  even  of  many 
cultivated  fields,  especially  where  the  limestone  approaches 
the  surface,  presenting  a  broad  expanse  of  brilliant  blue.  It 
is  surprising  that  the  farmers  should  allow  a  biennial  like  this 
so  completely  to  overrun  the  land.  Another  plant  much  more 
extensively  introduced  here  than  in  the  north  (where  it 
scarcely  deserves  the  name  of  a  naturalized  species)  is  Bu- 
pleurum  rotundifolium,  which  in  the  course  of  the  day  we  met 
with  abundantly.  The  Marubium  vulgare  is  everywhere  nat- 
uralized ;  and  Euphorbia  Laihyris  must  also  be  added  to  the 
list  of  naturalized  plants.  The  little  Verbena  angustifolia  is 
also  a  common  weed.  We  collected  but  a  single  indigenous 
plant  of  any  interest,  and  one  which  we  by  no  means  expected 
to  find,  namely,  Carex  stenolepsis  of  Torrey,1  which  here,  as 
in  western  States,  to  which  we  supposed  it  confined,  takes  the 
place  of  the  northern  C.  retrorm.  We  searched  for  its  con- 
stant companion,  C.  Shortii,  and  the  next  day  we  found  the 
two  growing  together.  During  the  day's  ride  we  observed 
that  the  bearded  wheat  was  almost  exclusively  cultivated,  and 
were  informed  that  it  had  been  found  less  subject  to  the  rav- 
ages of  the  "  Fly  "  than  the  ordinary  varieties  ;  which  may  be 
owing  to  recent  introduction  of  the  seed  of  the  bearded  variety 
from  districts  unmolested  by  this  insect. 

The  following  day  we  traveled  only  sixteen  miles  on  our 
route,  but  from  Mount  Sidney  made  an  interesting  excursion 
on  foot  to  Weyer's  Cave,  one  of  the  largest,  and  certainly  the 
most  remarkable  grotto  in  the  United  States.  It  has  been  so 
often  described  as  to  render  any  account  on  our  part  super- 

1  It  is  the  C.  Frankii  of  Kunth  (1837),  and  of  Kunze's  Supplement  to 
Schkuhr's  "  Cartography,"  where  it  is  well  figured.  It  was  also  distrib- 
uted among  Dr.  Frank's  plants  under  the  name  of  C.  atherodes,  and  with 
the  locality  of  Baltimore  in  Pennsylvania  !  I  had  always  supposed  it  to 
be  derived  from  some  part  of  the  western  States  ;  but  since  it  abounds 
in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  it  may  have  been  collected  near  Baltimore, 
Maryland. 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION   TO   NORTH   CAROLINA.     37 

fluous.  Near  the  cave  we  saw  some  trees  of  Till  la  hettro- 
phylla,  Vent.  (T7.  alba,  Michx.  f.),  and  collected  a  few  speci- 
mens with  unopened  flower-buds.  It  appears  to  be  the  most 
abundant  species  along  the  mountains. 

Our  ride  next  day  offered  nothing  of  interest.  Near 
Staunton,  we  saw  some  patches  of  Delphinium  consolida, 
where  it  was  pretty  thoroughly  naturalized  in  the  time  of 
Pursh.  We  did  not  observe  Spircea  lobata,  which  Michaux 
first  met  with  in  this  vicinity,  and  which  Pursh,  as  well  as 
later  botanists,  found  in  various  parts  of  the  valley.  Passing 
the  town  of  Lexington  in  the  evening,  we  arrived  at  the 
Natural  Bridge  towards  morning,  where  we  remained  until 
Monday,  and  had  an  opportunity  of  botanizing  for  a  short 
time  before  we  left.  On  the  rocks  we  found  plenty  of  As- 
plenium  Ruta-muraria,  Sedun  ternatum,  and  Draba  ramo- 
sissima  with  ripe  fruit.  In  the  bottom  of  the  ravine,  directly 
under  the  stupendous  natural  arch  (the  point  which  affords 
the  most  impressive  view  of  this  vast  chasm),  we  collected 
specimens  of  Heuchera  villosa,  Michx.,  in  fine  flower  on  the 
28th  of  June ;  although,  in  the  higher  mountains  of  North 
Carolina,  where  it  also  abounds,  the  flowers  did  not  appear 
until  near  the  end  of  July.  This  species  is  excellently  de- 
scribed by  Michaux,  to  whose  account  it  is  only  necessary  to 
add  that  the  petals  are  very  narrow,  appearing  like  sterile  fila- 
ments. Although  a  smaller  plant  than  H.  Americana,  the 
leaves  are  larger,  and  vary  considerably  in  the  depths  of  the 
lobes.  It  is  both  the  H.  villosa  and  H.  caidescens  of  Pursh, 
who  probably  derived  the  latter  name  from  the  strong  elon- 
gated rhizoma,  often  projecting  and  appearing  like  a  suf- 
frutescent  stem,  by  which  the  plant  is  attached  to  the  rocks  ; 
since  he  does  not  describe  the  scape  as  leafy,  nor  is  this  at 
all  the  case  in  the  original  specimens.  The  H.  caulescens  of 
Torrey  and  Gray's  Flora  with  the  synonym,  must  also  be 
united  with  H.  villosa,  which  in  that  work  is  chiefly  described 
from  specimens  collected  by  Dr.  Short  in  Kentucky,  where 
everything  seems  to  grow  with  extraordinary  luxuriance. 
With  these,  the  plant  we  collected  entirely  accords  except 
that  the  leaves  are  mostly  smaller,  and  more  deeply  lobed ; 


?,S  ESSA  YS. 

but  this  character  is  not  constant.1  Soon  after  leaving 
Natural  Bridge,  we  observed  indigenous  trees  of  the  Honey 
Locust  (Gleditschia  triacanthos),  also  JEsculus  Pavia? 
and,  in  crossing  the  valley  of  the  James  River,  we  noticed 
the  Papaw  QUvaria  triloba)  and  Negundo.  The  roadside 
was  almost  everywhere  occupied  with  Verbesina  Siegesbeckia 
not  yet  in  flower  ;  and  in  many  places  with  31elissa  (  Cala- 
mi nt  ha*)  JVepeta,  which  Mr.  Bentham  has  not  noticed  as  an 
American  plant,  although  Pursh  has  it  as  a  native  of  the 
country.  It  was,  however,  doubtless  introduced  from  Europe, 
but  is  completely  naturalized  in  the  valley  of  Virginia,  in 
Tennessee,  and  in  North  Carolina  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

On  Tuesday,  the  29th  of  June,  we  crossed  the  New  River, 
arrived  at  Wytheville,  or  Wythe  Court  House,  towards  even- 
ing ;  and  at  Marion,  or  Smythe  Court  House,  on  the  Middle 
Fork  of  the  Holston,  early  the  next  morning.  The  vege- 
tation of  this  elevated  region  is  almost  entirely  similar  to 
that  of  the  northern  States.  The  only  herbaceous  plants  we 
noticed,  as  we  passed  rapidly  along,  which  we  had  not  seen 
growing  before,  were  Galax  aphylla,  and  Silene  Virginica  : 
the  showy,  deep-red  flowers  of  the  latter,  no  less  than  the  dif- 
ferent habitus,  caused  us  to  wonder  how  it  could  ever  have 
been  confounded  with  the  northern  S.  Pennsylvanica.  The 
only  forest  tree  with  which  we  were  not  previously  familiar 
was  the  large  Buckeye,  JEscuhis  flava,  which  abounds  in 
this  region,  and  attains  the  height  of  sixty  to  ninety  feet,  and 
the  diameter  of  two  or  three  feet  or  more  at  the  base. 

At  Marion  we  determined  to  leave  the  valley  road,  and  to 
cross  the  mountains  into  Ashe  County,  North  Carolina ;  the 
morning  was  occupied  in  seeking  a  conveyance  for  this  pur- 

1  Much  to  our  disappointment  we  did  not  meet  with  Heuchera  hispida, 
although  I  have  since  learned  from  an  inspection  of  Barton's  herbarium, 
that  we  passed  within  a  moderate  distance  from  the  place  where  Pursh 
discovered  it.  The  habitat  given  on  the  original  ticket,  "  High  Moun- 
tains between  Fincastle  and  the  Sweet  Springs,  and  some  other  similar 
places,"  we  here  cite,  with  the  hope  that  it  may  guide  some  botanist  to 
its  rediscovery.  The  habitat  in  Pursh' s  Flora,  "  High  Mountains  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Carolina,"  is  probably  a  mere  guess,  so  far  as  relates  to  the 
latter  State. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION    TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     39 

pose.  With  considerable  difficulty  we  at  length  procured  a 
carry-all  (a  light,  covered  wagon  with  springs,  drawn  by  a 
single  horse),  capable  of  conveying  our  luggage  and  a  single 
person  besides  the  driver,  a  simple  shoemaker  who  had  never 
before  undertaken  so  formidable  a  journey,  and  who  accord- 
ingly proved  entirely  wanting  in  the  skill  and  tact  necessary 
for  conducting  so  frail  a  vehicle  over  such  difficult  mountain 
tracks,  for  roads  they  can  scarcely  be  called.  'We  had  first 
to  ascend  the  steep  ridge  interposed  between  the  middle  and 
south  Forks  of  the  Holston,  called  Brushy  Mountain,  during 
the  ascent  of  which  we  commenced  botanizing  in  earnest. 
The  first  interesting  plant  we  met  with  was  Saxifraga  erosa 
of  Pursh,  but  only  with  ripe  fruit,  and  even  with  the  seeds 
for  the  most  part  fallen  from  the  capsules.  The  same  locality 
also  furnished  us  with  specimens  of  the  pretty  Thalictrum 
jilipes,  Torr.  &  Gray  (to  which  the  name  of  T.  davatum, 
DC.  must  be  restored),  a  plant  which  abounds  along  all  the 
cold  and  clear  brooks  throughout  the  mountains  of  North 
Carolina ;  where  it  could  not  well  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
Michaux,  in  whose  herbarium  De  Candolle  found  the  speci- 
men (with  no  indication  of  its  habitat)  on  which  his  T.  chi- 
vatum  was  established.  The  authors  of  the  "  Flora  of  North 
America,"  having  only  an  imperfect  fruiting  specimen  of 
their  T.  filipes,  and  not  sufficiently  remarking  the  discrep- 
ancies between  the  T.  clavatum,  Hook.  "  Fl.  Bor.-Am."  and 
the  figure  and  description  of  De  Candolle's  plant,  in  regard 
to  the  length  of  the  styles,  assumed  the  former  to  be  the  true 
T.  clavatum,,  and  described  their  own  plant  as  a  new  species. 
But  our  specimens  accord  so  perfectly  with  the  figure  of 
Delessert  (except  in  the  greater  but  variable  length  of  the 
stipes  to  the  fruit,  and  in  the  veining  of  the  carpels,  which, 
doubtless  by  an  oversight  of  the  artist,  is  omitted  in  the  fig- 
ure) as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  their  identity.  The  subarctic 
plant  may  be  appropriately  called  T.  Richardson} /,  in  honor 
of  its  discoverer.  The  flowers  of  this  species  are  uniformly 
perfect,  as  indeed  they  are  figured  by  Delessert,  although 
De  Candolle  has  otherwise  described  them.  It  is  a  slender, 
delicate  plant,  from  eight  to  twelve,  or  rarely  exceeding  eigh- 


40  ESS  A  YS. 

teen  inches  in  height,  with  pure  white  flowers.  During  this 
ascent  we  collected  Galium  latifolium,  Michx.,  just  coming 
into  flower ;  and  we  subsequently  found  this  species  so  widely 
diffused  throughout  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  that  we 
were  much  surprised  at  its  remaining  so  little  known  since 
the  time  of  Michaux.  On  a  moist,  rocky  bank  by  the  road- 
side, wre  gathered  some  specimens  of  a  Scutellaria,  which  did 
not  again  occur  to  us.  It  proves  to  be  a  species  mentioned 
by  Mr.  Bentham  under  S.  serrata,  and  subsequently  de- 
scribed by  Dr.  Riddell  with  the  name  of  *Sr.  saxatilis,  which 
apparently  is  not  of  uncommon  occurrence  westward  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.  It  is  a  slender  plant,  from  six  to 
twenty  inches  high ;  and  the  stems  often  produce  slender  sub- 
terranean runners  from  their  base.  We  here  also  collected 
Asarum  Virginicum,  Linn,  in  similar  situations.  In  the 
higher  mountains  the  northern  A.  Canadense  takes  the  place 
of  the  former  species,  while  A.  arifolium,  Michx.  seems  to 
be  confined  to  the  lowrer  country.  The  banks  of  the  shady 
and  cool  rivulets, which  we  crossed  every  few  minutes  during 
our  ascent,  were  in  many  places  covered  by  the  prostrate  or 
creeping  Hedyotis  serpyttifolia,  Torr.  &  Gray  (Houstonia 
serpyttifolia,  Michx.),  which  continues  to  flower  sparingly 
throughout  the  summer.  This  pretty  plant  has  quite  the 
habit  of  Arenaria  Balearica;  and  the  root  is  certainly  per- 
ennial. We  found  it  very  abundant  in  similar  situations 
throughout  this  mountain  region.  Towards  the  summit  of 
this  ridge  we  first  met  with  the  Magnolia  Fraseri  (M. 
auriculata,  Bart.),  which  resembles  the  Umbrella-tree 
{Magnolia  Umbrella)  in  the  disposition  of  its  leaves  at  the 
extremity  of  the  branches.  This,  as  well  as  M.  acuminata 
(the  only  other  species  of  Magnolia  that  we  observed),  is 
occasionally  termed  Cucumber-tree ;  but  the  people  of  the 
country  almost  uniformly  called  the  former  Wahoo,  a  name 
which  in  the  lower  part  of  the  southern  States  is  applied  to 
Ulmus  alata,  or  often  to  all  the  Elms  indifferently.  The 
bitter  and  somewhat  aromatic  infusion  of  the  green  cones  of 
both  these  Magnolias  in  whiskey  or  apple-brandy  is  very 
extensively  employed   as    a  preventive    against  intermittent 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     41 

fevers ;  a  use  which,  as  the  younger  Michaux  remarks,  would 
doubtless  be  much  less  frequent,  if,  with  the  same  medical 
properties,  the  aqueous  infusion  were  substituted. 

Nearly  at  the  top  of  this  mountain  we  overtook  our  awk- 
ward driver,  awaiting  our  arrival  in  perfect  helplessness,  hav- 
ing contrived  to  break  his  carriage  upon  a  heap  of  stones,  and 
to  overthrow  his  horse  into  the  boughs  of  a  prostrate  tree. 
So  much  time  was  occupied  in  extricating  the  poor  animal 
and  in  temporary  repairs  to  the  wagon,  that  we  had  barely 
time  to  descend  the  mountain  on  the  opposite  side,  and  to 
seek  lodgings  for  the  night  in  the  secluded  valley  of  the  South 
Fork  of  the  Holston.  In  moist,  shady  places  along  the  de- 
scent of  this  mountain,  and  in  similar  situations  throughout 
the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  we  found  plenty  of  the 
northern  Lister  a  convallarioides,  in  fine  state,  entirely  simi- 
lar to  the  plant  from  Vermont,  Canada,  Newfoundland,  and 
the  Northwest  Coast,  and  agreeing  completely  with  the  figure 
of  Swartz  (in  Weber  &  Mohr,  "  Beitrage  zur  Naturkunde," 
I.,  1805,  p.  2,  t.  I.),  and  the  recent  one  of  Hooker's  "Flora 
Boreali  Americana."  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  why  Willde- 
now  should  cite  the  Ophrys  corelata  of  Michaux  under  the 
Epipactis  convallarioides  of  Swartz,  while  there  is  so  little 
accordance  in  their  characters  ;  but  this  has  not  prevented 
Pursh  from  combining  the  specific  phrase  of  the  twro  authors 
into  one,  while  he  assigns  a  locality  for  the  plant  (New  Jer- 
sey), where  the  Listera  convallarioides  certainly  does  not 
grow.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Curtis,  I  believe,  first  detected  the 
plant  in  these  mountains. 

The  next  day  (July  1)  we  crossed  the  Iron  Mountains 
(the  great  chain  which  divides  the  States  of  North  Carolina 
and  Tennessee,  and  which  here  forms  the  northwestern  boun- 
dary of  Grayson  County,  Virginia)  by  Fox-Creek  Gap.  and 
traversing  the  numerous  tributaries  of  the  North  Fork  of  the 
New  River,  which  abundantly  water  this  sequestered  region, 
we  slept  a  few  miles  beyond  the  boundary  of  North  Carolina, 
after  a  journey  of  nearly  thirty  miles.  It  must  not  be  imag- 
ined that  we  found  hotels  or  taverns  for  our  accommodation  ; 
as,  except  at  Ashe  Court  House,  we  saw  no  house  of  public 


42  ESS  A  YS. 

entertainment  from  the  time  we  left  the  valley  of  Virginia 
until  we  finally  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  and  quitted  the  moun- 
tain region.  Yet  we  suffered  little  inconvenience  on  this  ac- 
count,  as  we  were  cordially  received  at  the  farm-houses  along 
the  road,  and  entertained  according  to  the  means  and  ability 
of  the  owners  ;  who  seldom  hesitated  either  to  make  a  mod- 
erate charge,  or  to  accept  a  proper  compensation  for  their 
hospitality,  which  we  therefore  did  not  hesitate  to  solicit  from 
time  to  time.  On  the  Iron  Mountains  we  met  with  nearly 
all  the  species  we  had  collected  during  the  previous  day,  and 
with  a  single  additional  plant  of  much  interest,  namely,  the 
Boykinia  aconitifolia,  Nutt.  We  found  it  in  the  greatest 
abundance  and  luxuriance  on  the  southern  side  of  the  moun- 
tain, near  the  summit,  along  the  rocky  margins  of  a  small 
brook,  which  for  a  short  distance  were  completely  covered 
with  the  plant.  It  here  attains  the  height  of  two  feet  or 
more;  the  stems,  rising  from  a  thick  rhizoma  (and  clothed 
below,  as  well  as  the  petioles,  with  deciduous  rusty  hairs),  are 
terminated  by  a  panicle  of  small  cymes,  which  at  first  are 
crowded,  but  at  length  are  loose,  with  the  flowers  mostly  uni- 
lateral. The  rather  large,  pure  white  petals  are  deciduous 
after  flowering,  not  marcescent  as  in  Saxifraga  and  Heuchera. 
We  did  not  again  meet  with  this  plant  ;  but  Mr.  Curtis  col- 
lected it  several  years  ago  near  the  head  of  Linville  River, 
and  Mr.  Buckley  obtained  it  in  the  mountains  of  Alabama. 
It  also  extends  further  north  than  our  own  locality ;  for, 
although  not  described  in  his  Flora,  Pursh  collected  it  on 
the  Salt-Pond  Mountain  in  Virginia.1  I  have  little  doubt 
that  the  Saxifraga  Richardsonii  would  be  more  correctly 
transferred  to  Boykinia,  as  well  as  the  8.  ranuncuUfoUa  ; 
and,  since  the  /Sy.  data  of  Nuttall,  in  Torrey  and  Gray's 
1  The  specimen  in  Professor  Barton's  herbarium  (in  fruit)  is  ticketed 
by  Pursh  :  "  Heuchera  villosa,  Michx.  ?  Salt-Pond  Mountain,  under  the 
naked  knob,  near  a  spring.  This  spring  is  the  highest  I  have  seen."  I 
know  not  the  exact  situation  of  this  mountain  from  which  Pursh  obtained 
many  interesting  plants.  The  Boykinia  aconitifolia,  I  may  remark,  would 
be  a  very  desirable  plant  in  cultivation,  and  might  be  expected  to  endure 
the  winter  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  ;  it  would  certainly  flourish  in 
England% 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     43 

"  Elora,"  is  referred  to  Boyhinia  occidentalism  in  the  supple- 
ment to  that  work,  no  pentandrous  Saxifrage  remains,  except 
the  ambiguous  S.  Sullivantii,  Torr.  &  Gr.  But  the  authors 
of  the  Flora  having  received  fruiting  specimens  of  this 
interesting  plant,  do  not  hesitate  to  remove  it  from  the  genus 
to  which  it  was  provisionally  appended,  and  to  dedicate  it  to 
their  esteemed  correspondent,  the  promising  botanist  who  dis- 
covered it.1 

While  descending  the  mountain  on  the  opposite  side,  we 
met  with  Clethra  acuminata,  a  very  distinct  and  almost  arbo- 
rescent species,  which  is  well  characterized  by  Michaux.  The 
flowers  were  not  yet  expanded  ;  but  towards  the  end  of  July 
we  obtained  from  other  localities  specimens  in  full  flower, 
while  the  racemes  and  capsules  of  the  preceding  year  were 
still  persistent.  The  conspicuous  bracts,  it  may  be  remarked, 
are  as  caducous  in  the  wild  as  they  are  said  to  be  in  the 
cultivated  plant ;  usually  falling  before  the  flower-buds  have 
attained  their  full  size.  We  also  saw  Campanula  divaricata, 
Michx.,  not  yet  in  flower  ;  and  obtained  fruiting  specimens 
of  the  Convallaria  umbelhdata,  Michx.  (Clintonia,  Raf.,  not 
of  Dough).     While  the  character  in  Michaux  is  drawn  from 

i  SulUvantia.  Torrey  &  Gray,  "Fl.  N.  Amer."  suppl.  hied.  -  Calyx 
inferne  imo  ovario  aclnatus,  limbo  quinquefido.  Petala  5  spathulata,  un- 
guiculata,  Integra,  summo  calycis  tubo  inserta,  marcescentia.  Stamina 
5  laciniis  calyeinis  breviora  :  anther*  biloculares.  Styli,  2,  breves  ; 
stio-matibus  simplicibus.  Capsula  calyce  inclusa,  biloculans,  birostris, 
polyspermy  rostris  intus  longitudinaliter  dehiscentibus.  Semina  adscen- 
dentia,  scobiformia  ;  testa  membracea,  relaxata,  utrinque  ultra  nucleum 
ovalem  alatim  producta.  Embryo  cylindricus  albumine  vix  brevior.  - 
Herba  humilis,  in  rupibus  calcareis  Ohionis  vigens  ;  radice  fibrosa  per- 
enni  ■  foliis  plerisque  radicalibus,  rotundato-reiiiformibus,  mciso-dentatis 
snblo'batisve,  longe  petiolatis  ;  scapo  gracili,  decumbente  ;  flonbus  parvis 
(corolla  conspicua,  alba),  cymuloso-paniculatis,  post  antliesin  in  apicem 
pedicellorum  arete  deflexis.  „ 

S.  Ohionis. -Saxifraga  ?  Sullivantii,  Torrey  &  Gray,  «  Fl.  N.  Amer. 
i  575  —Genus  a  Saxifraga  prsecipue  diversum  staminibus  petalis  iso- 
meris,  et  seminibus  scobiformibus  :  a  Boykinia  calyce  fere  hbero,  atque 
seminibus  ;  ab  Heuchera  capsula  biloculari,  etc.  ;  a  Leptarrhena  stamini- 
bus 5,  antheris  bilocularibus,  et  seminibus  alato-marginatis,  nee  ntrinque 
subulatis. 


44  ESS  A  YS. 

this  species,  the  "  planta  Canadensis  "  there  mentioned  is  the 
nearly  allied  Dracaena  borealis  of  the  "  Hortus  Kewensis." 
The  two  species  are  mixed  in  Michaux's  herbarium ;  and,  al- 
though the  latter  is  almost  exclusively  a  northern  plant,  we 
found  the  two  species  growing  together  on  the  Grandfather, 
Roan,  and  other  high  mountains  of  North  Carolina.  To- 
wards the  base  of  the  mountain  we  saw  for  the  first  time  the 
Pyrularia  of  Michaux  (Oil-nut,  Buffalo-tree,  etc.  ;  Hamil- 
tonia  oleifera,  Muhl.)  :  a  low  shrub  which  is  not  of  unfre- 
quent  occurrence  in  rich,  shady  soil.  Its  geographical  range 
extends  from  the  Cherokee  country  on  the  confines  of  Georgia 
(where  the  elder  Michaux  discovered  it  on  his  earliest  visit 
to  the  mountains,  and  where  Mr.  Curtis  has  recently  observed 
it),  to  the  western  ranges  of  the  Alleghanies  of  Pennsylvania 
in  lat.  40°,  where  it  was  found  by  the  younger  Michaux.1  It 
flowers  early  in  the  season,  and  the  oleaginous  fruit  in  the 
specimens  we  collected  had  attained  the  size  of  a  musket-ball. 
In  wet  places,  on  the  very  borders  of  North  Carolina,  but 
still  within  Virginia,  we  first  met  with  Trautvetteria  pal  ??i  at  a 
and  Diphylleia  cymosa ;  the  former  in  full  flower,  the  latter 
in  fruit.  Trautvetteria,  which  I  doubt  not  is  more  nearly 
allied  to  Thalictrum  than  to  Cimicifuga  or  Actaea,  was  col- 
lected by  Pursh  in  Virginia,  both  on  the  Salt-Pond  Mountain 
and  on  the  Peaks  of  Otter.  The  Diphylleia  is  confined  to 
springy  places,  and  the  margins  of  the  shaded  mountain 
brooks,  and  the  rich  and  deep  alluvial  soil  which  is  so  general 
throughout  these  mountains,  never  occurring  perhaps  at  a 
lower  elevation  than  three  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea.  It  is  a  more  striking  plant  than  we  had  supposed  ; 
the  cauline  leaves  (generally  two,  but  sometimes  three  in 
number)  being  often  two  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  radicle, 
which  is  obicular  and  centrally  peltate  as  in  Podophyllum, 
frequently  still  larger  ;  so  that  it  is  not  easy  (at  this  season) 
to  obtain  manageable  specimens.  The  branches  of  the  cymes 
are  usually  reddish  or  purple,  and  the  gibbous  deep  blue  and 
glaucous  berries  are  almost  dry  when  ripe.     The  latter  often 

1  "  Travels  to  the  Westward  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,"  etc.  English 
edition,  p.  57,  etc. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     45 

contain  as  many  as  four  perfect  seeds  ;  and  it  is  proper  to 
remark  that  the  embryo  is  not  "very  minute,"  as  described 
in  the  "  Flora  of  North  America "  ;  but,  in  the  ripe  seeds 
recently  examined,  is  one  third  the  length  of  the  albumen, 
as  stated  by  Decaisne,  or  even  longer.  The  cotyledons  are 
elliptical,  flattish,  and  nearly  the  length  of  the  thick,  slightly 
club-shaped  radicle.  The  whole  embryo  is  also  somewhat 
flattened ;  so  that  when  the  seed  is  longitudinally  divided  in 
one  direction,  the  embryo,  examined  in  place,  appears  to  be 
very  slender,  and  to  agree  with  De  Candolle's  description. 
The  albumen  is  horny  when  dry,  and  has  a  bitter  taste. 
Along  the  roadside  we  shortly  afterwards  collected  the  equivo- 
cal Vaccinium  erythrocarpum  of  Michaux,  or  Oxycoccus  erec- 
tus  of  Pursh  ;  a  low,  erect,  dichotomously  branched  shrub, 
with  the  habit,  foliage,  and  fruit  of  Vaccinium,  but  the  flowers 
of  Oxycoccus.  It  here  occurred  at  a  lower  elevation  than 
usual,  scarcely  more  than  three  thousand  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea,  and  in  a  dwarfish  state  (about  a  foot  high)  :  sub- 
sequently we  only  met  with  it  on  the  summit  of  the  Grand- 
father and  other  mountains  which  exceed  the  altitude  of  five 
thousand  feet,  where  it  is  commonly  three  or  four  feet  high. 
We  were  too  early  for  the  fruit,  a  small,  red  or  purplish 
berry,  which  does  not  ripen  until  August  or  September.  It 
has  an  exquisite  flavor,  according  to  Pursh,  who  found  the 
plant  on  the  mountains  of  Virginia ;  but  our  friend  Mr. 
Curtis  informs  us  that  it  is  rather  insipid,  and  entirely  desti- 
tute of  the  fine  acidity  of  the  cranberry. 

On  the  2d  of  July  we  continued  our  journey  (eleven  miles) 
to  Jefferson  or  Ashe  Court  House,  a  hamlet  of  twenty  or 
thirty  houses,  and  the  only  village  in  the  county.  Intending 
to  make  this  place  our  headquarters  while  we  remained  in  the 
region,  we  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  excellent  accommoda- 
tions at  the  house  of  Colonel  Bower,  who  evinced  every  dis- 
position to  further  our  inquiries,  and  afforded  us  very  impor- 
tant assistance.  We  may  remark  indeed,  that  during  our 
residence  amongst  the  mountains  we  were  uniformly  received 
with  courtesy  by  the  inhabitants ;  who  for  the  most  part 
lacked  the  general  intelligence  of  our  obliging  host  at  Jeffer- 


46  ESSAYS. 

son,  and  could  scarcely  be  made  to  comprehend  the  object  of 
our  visit,  or  why  we  should  come  from  a  distance  of  seven 
hundred  miles  to  toil  over  the  mountains  in  quest  of  their 
common  and  disregarded  herbs.  Curiosities  as  we  were  to 
these  good  folks,  their  endless  queries  had  no  air  of  imper- 
tinence, and  they  entertained  us  to  the  best  of  their  ability, 
never  attempting  to  make  unreasonable  charges.  A  very  fas- 
tidious palate  might  occasionally  be  at  a  loss  ;  but  good  corn- 
bread  and  milk  are  everywhere  abundant ;  the  latter  being 
used  from  preference  quite  sour,  or  even  curdled.  Sweet 
milk  appears  to  be  very  generally  disliked,  being  thought  less 
wholesome,  and  more  likely  to  produce  the  "  milk  sickness," 
which  is  prevalent  in  some  very  circumscribed  districts ;  so 
that  our  dislike  of  sour  and  fondness  for  sweet  milk  was  re- 
garded by  this  simple  people  as  one  of  our  very  many  oddi- 
ties. Nearly  every  farmer  has  a  small  dairy-house  built  over 
a  cold  brook  or  spring,  by  which  the  milk  and  butter  are  kept 
cool  and  sweet  in  the  warmest  weather. 

We  botanized  for  several  days  upon  the  mountains  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  Jefferson,  especially  the  Negro 
Mountain,  which  rises  abruptly  on  one  side  of  the  village,  the 
Phoenix  Mountain,  a  sharp  ridge  on  the  other  side,  and  the 
Bluff,  a  few  miles  distant  in  a  westerly  direction.  The  alti- 
tude of  the  former  is  probably  between  four  and  five  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  sea  ;  the  latter  is  apparently  somewhat 
higher.  They  are  all  composed  of  Mica-slate  ;  and  we  should 
remark  that  we  entered  upon  a  primitive  region  immediately 
upon  leaving  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  The  mountain  sides, 
though  steep  or  precipitous,  are  covered  with  a  rich  and  deep 
vegetable  mould,  and  are  heavily  timbered,  chiefly  with 
Chestnut,  White  Oak,  the  Tulip-tree,  the  Cucumber-tree,  and 
sometimes  the  Sugar  Maple.  Their  vegetation  presents  so 
little  diversity,  that  it  is  for  the  most  part  unnecessary  to  dis- 
tinguish particular  localities.  Besides  many  of  the  plants 
already  mentioned,  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  north- 
ern species  which  we  have  not  room  to  enumerate,  we  collected 
or  observed  on  the  mountain  sides,  Clematis  Viorna  in  great 
abundance ;   Tradescantia  Virginica  ;  Iris  cristata  in  fruit ; 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     47 

Hedyotis  (Amphiotis)  purpurea,  which  scarcely  deserves  the 
name,  since  the  flowers  are  commonly  almost  white  ;  Phlox 
pa?iiculata  ?  Aristolochla  Sipho,  without  flowers  or  fruit ; 
Ribes  Cynosbati,  rotund if blium,  Michx.  {R.  triflorum, 
Willd.)  and  prostratum,  L'Her. ;  Allium  cernuum  and  tri- 
coccum ; 1  Galax  apliylla ;  Ligusticum  actceifolium,  the 
strong-scented  roots  of  which  are  eagerly  sought  and  eaten 
by  boys  and  hogs  ; 2  The  Ginseng,  here  called  "  sang  "  (the 
roots  of  which  are  largely  collected,  and  sold  to  the  country 
merchants  when  fresh  for  about  twelve  cents  per  pound,  or 
when  dry  for  triple  that  price)  ;  Menziesia  globularis,  mostly 
in  fruit ;  and  the  showy  Azalea  calendulacea,  which  was  also 
out  of  flower,  except  in  deep  shade.3     In  the  latter  situations 

1  The  latter  is  known  throughout  this  region  by  the  name  of 
"  Ramps  "  ;  doubtless  a  corruption  of  "  Ramsons,"  the  popular  appella- 
tion of  A.  ursinum  in  England. 

2  It  is  here  termed  "  Angelico  "  ;  while  in  Virginia  it  is  called  "  Xon- 
do."  Bartram  (Travels,  p.  45,  and  p.  367),  who  found  it  in  Georgia, 
notices  it  under  the  name  of  Angelica  lucida,  or  "White-root"  of  the 
Creek  and  Cherokee  traders.  "  Its  aromatic  carminative  root  is  in  taste 
much  like  that  of  ginseng,  though  more  of  the  taste  and  scent  of  anise- 
seed  :  it  is  in  high  estimation  with  the  Indians  as  well  as  white  inhabi- 
tants, and  sells  at  a  great  price  to  the  southern  Indians  of  Florida,  who 
dwell  near  the  sea-coast,  where  this  never  grows  spontaneously."  (Bar- 
tram,  I.  c.) 

8  Bartram  well  describes  this  species,  under  the  name  of  Azalea  flam- 
med, or  fiery  Azalea.  "The  epithet  fiery  I  annex  to  this  most  celebrated 
species  of  Azalea,  as  being  expressive  of  the  appearance  of  its  flowers  ; 
which  are  in  general  of  the  color  of  the  finest  red-lead,  orange  and  bright 
gold,  as  well  as  yellow  and  cream-color.  These  various  splendid  colors 
are  not  only  in  separate  plants,  but  frequently  all  the  varieties  and  shades 
are  seen  in  separate  branches  on  the  same  plant  ;  and  the  clusters  of  the 
blossoms  cover  the  shrubs  in  such  incredible  profusion  on  the  hillsides, 
that  suddenly  opening  to  view  from  dark  shades,  we  are  alarmed  with 
apprehension  of  the  woods  being  set  on  fire.  This  is  certainly  the  most 
gay  and  brilliant  flowering  shrub  yet  known  ;  they  grow  in  little  copses 
or  clumps,  in  open  forests  as  well  as  dark  groves,  with  other  shrubs,  and 
about  the  bases  of  hills,  especially  where  brooks  and  rivulets  wind  about 
them  ;  the  bushes  seldom  rise  above  six  or  seven  feet  in  height,  and  gen- 
erally but  three,  four,  or  five,  but  branch  and  spread  their  tops  greatly  ; 
the  young  leaves  are  but  very  small  whilst  the  shrubs  are  in  bloom,  from 
which  circumstance  the  plant  exhibits  a  greater  show  of  splendor." 
(Bartram's  Travels,  p.  323.) 


48  ESS  A  YS. 

we  found  an  arborescent  tetramerous  species  of  Prinos  (in 
fruit  only),  with  large  and  membranaceous  ovate  leaves. 
The  same  species  has  been  collected  on  the  Pokono  Moun- 
tains in  Pennsylvania  by  Mr.  Wolle,  and  on  the  Catskills  by 
Mr.  S.  T.  Carey.  We  should  deem  it  the  P.  laevigatas  of 
Pursh  (not  of  Torrey,  Fl.  Northern  States),  on  account  of 
the  solitary  and  subsessile  fertile  flowers,  as  well  as  the 
habitat,  were  not  the  flowers  of  that  species  said  to  be  hex- 
amerous. 

In  damp,  very  shady  places  high  up  the  Negro  Mountain 
we  saw  an  Aconitum  not  yet  in  flower ;  and  on  moist  rocks 
near  the  summit,  obtained  a  few  fruiting  specimens  of  a  Saxi- 
f  raga  which  was  entirely  new  to  us.  In  a  single  very  secluded 
spot  on  the  north  side  of  the  mountain,  near  the  summit,  the 
rocks  were  covered  with  a  beautiful  small  Fern,  which  proves 
to  be  the  Asplenium  Adiantam-nigrum  of  Michaux,  the  A. 
montanum,  Willd.,  an  extremely  rare  plant.  It  is  certainly 
distinct  from  the  A.  Adiantum-nigrum ;  being  not  only  a 
much  smaller  and  more  delicate  species  (two  to  four  inches 
high),  but  the  fronds  are  narrower,  the  pinnae  ovate  and 
much  shorter,  3-5  parted,  with  the  pinnulae  toothed  or  in- 
cised at  the  apex. 

The  Veratrum  parviflorum,  Michx.,  is  of  frequent  occur- 
rence throughout  this  region,  but  was  not  yet  fully  in  flower, 
so  that  our  specimens  were  not  collected  until  near  the  end  of 
July.  The  plant  is  excellently  described  in  the  Flora  of 
Michaux,  where  it  is,  probably  with  justice,  referred  to  Vera- 
trum rather  than  to  Melanthium ;  since  the  divisions  of  the 
perianth  (yellowish-green  from  the  first)  are  wholly  destitute 
of  glands,  and  only  differ  from  Veratrum  in  being  stellate, 
and  tapering  at  the  base.  I  may  here  remark  that  the  name 
Melanthium  must  undoubtedly  be  retained  for  M.  Virgini- 
cum  and  M.  Tiybridum.  Some  years  since,  in  rearranging  the 
North  American  species  of  this  family,  I  followed  Roemer 
and  Schultes  in  adopting  the  genus  Leimanthium  of  Willde- 
now,  without  considering  that  Melanthium  was  established  by 
Clayton  and  Gronovius  on  3L  Virginicum,  and  thus  taken 
up  by  Linnaeus,  with  the  addition  of  a  Siberian  plant,  which 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     49 

belongs  to  Zigadenus.1     The  Melanthium    Capense  (Andro- 
cymbium,  Willd.)  was  added  some  time  afterwards. 

The  rocky  summits  of  the  mountains  afforded  us  Sedum  te- 
lephoides  ;  Heuchera  villosa  ;  Paronychia  argyrocoma,  which 
forms  dense  silvery  tufts  on  the  highest  and  most  exposed 
peaks  ;  Veronica  officinalis,  serpyllifolia,  and  agrestis  (all 
certainly  native)  ;  Lycopodium  rupestre,  in  a  very  beautiful 
state,  and  on  the  Phoenix  Mountain  we  found  a  solitary  speci- 
men of  L.  S  el  ago  ;  Arabis  lyrata,  with  perfectly  accumbent 
cotyledons  ;  Potentilla  tridentata,  which  we  only  saw  on  the 
Bluff  Mountain  ;  Woodsia  Ilvensis  ;  Saxifraga  leucanthemi- 
folia,  which  not  unfrequently  attains  the  height  of  two  feet, 
with  a  large  and  slender  effuse  panicle ;  Dier villa  trifida, 
entirely  resembling  the  northern  plant ;  Pyrus  melanocarpa  ; 
Sorbus  Americana,  (3.  microcarpa ;  Rhododendron  Cataw- 
biense,  just  out  of  flower,  while  R.  maximum,  extremely 
abundant  along  the  streams  and  mountain  sides,  was  only  be- 
ginning to  expand  its  blossoms.2  In  such  situations  also  we 
found  a  marked  dwarfish  variety  of  Hedyotis  purpurea,  grow- 
ing somewhat  in  tufts,  and  scarcely  exceeding  four  or  five 
inches  in  height.  The  flowers,  which  are  deep  pink,  while  in 
the  ordinary  form  in  this  region  they  are  nearly  white,  pre- 
sent the  dimorphism  which  obtains  in  several  sections  of  the 
genus  ;  the  stamens  in  some  specimens  being  inserted  in  the 
throat  of  the  corolla  and  exsert,  while  in  others  they  are  in- 
serted near  the  base  of  the  tube  and  included ;  in  the  former 
the  style  is  uniformly  short  and  included,  and  in  the  latter 
long  and  somewhat  exserted.  These  two  forms  were  often 
seen  growing  side  by  side,  and  appeared  to  be  equally  fer- 
tile. The  Amianthium  musccetoxicum,  which  is  common  in 
the  low  country  of  the  southern  States,  we  here  found  only 

1  The  Helonias  glaberrima,  "  Botanical  Magazine,"  t.  1680,  on  which  Zi- 
gadenus commutatus  of  Schultes  is  founded,  is  Z.  glaucus  ;  the  specimens 
came  from  Fraser's  nursery,  but  doubtless  were  not  derived  from  the 
southern  States.  Helonias  bracteata,  "  Botanical  Magazine/'  t.  1703,  is 
Z.  glaberrimus,  Michx.,  not  fully  developed. 

2  These  shrubs  bear  the  name  of  "  Laurel "  ;  while  the  Kalmia  lati- 
folia  is  universally  called  "  Ivy,"  or  "  Ivy-bush." 


50  ESSA  YS. 

in  the  rich  open  woods  of  the  Bluff  Mountain,  and  in  similar 
places  further  south.  The  flowers  are  pure  white  or  cream- 
color,  in  a  dense  and  very  showy  raceme,  at  length  changing 
to  green.  The  cattle  which  roam  in  the  woods  for  a  great 
part  of  the  year  are  sometimes  poisoned  by  feeding,  as  is  sup- 
posed, on  the  foliage  of  this  plant  during  the  autumn  :  hence 
its  name  of  "  Fall-poison."  The  wild  Pea- vine,  which  is  so 
highly  prized  as  an  autumnal  feed  for  cattle,  is  the  Amphi- 
carpaea.1  The  Lily  of  the  Valley  (Convallaria  majalis), 
which  we  occasionally  met  with  in  fruit,  appears  to  be  identi- 
cal with  the  European  plant.  It  extends  from  the  mountains 
of  Virginia  to  Georgia,  where  it  was  long  ago  noticed  by  the 
younger  Bartram.  We  also  collected  a  handsome  Phlox,  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  rich  woods,  which  differs  from  P. 
Carolina  (with  which  it  has  perhaps  been  confounded)  in  its 
perfectly  smooth  stem,  and  broader,  less  pointed  calyx-teeth. 
The  leaves  are  sometimes  an  inch  in  width,  and  four  or  five 
in  length ;  the  uppermost  often  ovate-lanceolate,  and  more  or 
less  cordate  at  the  base. 

A  species  of  Carex,  nearly  allied  to  C.  gracillima,  occurs 
in  the  greatest  abundance  on  all  the  higher  mountains  of 
North  Carolina,  forming  tufts  on  the  earth  or  on  rocks,  and 
flowering  throughout  the  summer.  On  this  account  it  is 
called  C.  cestivalis  by  Mr.  Curtis,  who  discovered  it  several 
years  since,  and  pointed  out  its  characters.2     We   also  met 

1  In  the  large  woods  the  surface  of  the  soil  is  covered  with  a  species  of 
wild  peas,  which  rise  three  feet  above  the  earth,  and  of  which  the  cattle 
are  very  greedy.  They  prefer  this  pasture  to  every  other,  and  when  re- 
moved from  it  they  fall  away,  or  make  their  escape  to  return  to  it." 
(Michaux,  F.  A.,  Travels,  p.  316.) 

2  C.  cestivalis  (M.  A.  Curtis,  ined.)  :  spicis  3-5  gracilihus  laxifloris 
suberectis,  infirma  pedunculata,  ceteris  subsessilibus,  suprema  androgyna 
inferne  mascula,  bracteis  inferioribus  foliaceis  vix  vaginantibus  supe- 
rioribus  setaceis,  perigyniis  ovoideis  trigonis  basi  apiceque  acutiusculis 
obsolete  nervosis  glabris  ore  subintegro  squamam  ovatam  obtusam  (nunc 
mucronatam)  duplo  superantibus,  stigmatibus  tribus,  vaginis  foliorum  in- 
feriorum  pubescentibus. 

Hab.  in  montibus  altioribus  Carolina?  Septentrionalis  ubique.  Julio- 
Augusto  floret.  —  C.  gracillimce  nimis  affinis  ;  at  diversa,  culmis  foliisque 
gracilioribus,  vaginis  infirmis  pubescentibus  ;  bracteis  vix  vaginantibus  ; 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION   TO   NORTH    CAROLINA.      51 

with  C.  canescens,  Linn,  ex  Boott  ((7.  Buxbaumii,  Wahl.) 
and  C.  conoidea,  Schk.,  on  the  moist  grassy  brow  of  a  preci- 
pice of  the  Bluff ;  and  towards  the  base  of  the  Negro  Moun- 
tain we  observed  C.  virescens  and  C.  digitalis,  Willd. 

In  a  cool,  sequestered  brook,  we  found  the  true  Carda- 
mine  rotundifolia,  Michx.,  growing  like  the  Water-cress  (for 
which  it  might  be  substituted,  as  its  leaves  have  exactly  the 
same  taste),  but  producing  numerous  stolons  two  or  three  or 

spicis  angustioribus  et  laxifloris  erectis,  superioribus  brevissime  peduncu- 
latis  ;  acheniis  oblongo-ovoideis  magis  stipitatis. 

The  figure  of  C.  gracillima,  in  Professor  Kunze's  Supplement  to 
Schkuhr's  Carices,  is  excellent,  except  that  the  immature  perigynia  are 
represented  with  more  distinct  beaks  than  I  have  ever  seen.  To  this 
genus,  already  perhaps  the  most  extensive  in  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
after  Senecio,  Mr.  Sullivant  has  recently  added  another  species,  an  ac- 
count of  which  may  be  appended  to  this  note.  As  Dr.  Boott  had  already 
dedicated  it  to  the  zealous  discoverer,  without  being  aware  that  he  had 
distributed  it  under  another  name,  I  trust  I  may  be  allowed  to  publish  the 
notes  of  this  sedulous  caricographer  unchanged  : 

"  C.  Sullivantii  (Boott)  :  spica  mascula  solitaria  cylindrica,  fcemineis 
3-5  cylindricis  erectis  gracilibus  pedunculatis  laxifloris,  superioribus  con- 
tiguis,  infirma  remota  longe  pedunculata  basi  attenuata,  stigmatibus  tribus, 
perigyniis  ellipticis  brevi-rostratis  emarginatis  pellucido-punctatis  apice 
marginibusque  piloso-hispidis  squamam  ovatam  ciliatam  hispido-mucrona- 
tam  subaequantibus. 

"  Culmus  bipedalis,  gracilis,  triqueter,  pilis  albis  sparsis  longis  scabrius- 
culus,  pars  spicas  gerens  2-9-uncialis.  Folia  2  lin.  lata,  culmo  breviora, 
marginibus  nervisque  scabris.  Bractea  infirma  vaginans,  foliacea,  culmum 
adaequans,  reliqua3  sensim  breviores,  superiores  evaginatse  demum  seta- 
ceae.  Spica  mascula  uncialis,  vix  lineam  lata,  sessilis  vel  brevi-peduneu- 
lata :  squamae,  muticae,  obtusae,  apice  ciliobatse,  nemo  scatro,  pallida? 
castaneae  spicae  fcemieae  3-5,  laxiflorae,  1-1^  uncias  longae,  1-1£  lineas 
latae  ;  superiores  contiguae  ;  infirma  remota  (uno  exemplo  basi  composita)  ; 
squamae  pellucidae  ciliolatae,  nervo  viridi  scabro,  hispido-mucronatae.  Pe- 
dunculi  scabri,  superiores  sensim  breviores.  Perigynium  (vix  maturum) 
If  lin.  longum,  ■£  lin.  latum,  viride,  enervium  ?  apice  hispidulum,  ciliatum, 
brevistipitatum,  squamam  subaequans  vel  eo  paululum  longius.  Achenium 
immaturum."    (Boott  in  litt.) 

Hab.  in  sylvaticis  prope  Columbum,  Ohionis,  ubi  detexit  W.  S.  Sulli- 
vant, cum  C.  pubescente,  C.  gracillima,  etc.  vigens.  Affinis  C.  arctatce  (C. 
sylvaticae,  auct.  Amer.)  ex  cl.  Boott.  —  In  exemplis  nuperrime  receptis, 
perigynia  satis  matura  sunt  ovato-elliptica,  lata,  compresso-plana,  ener- 
via  (marginibus  exceptis),  apice  vix  rostrata. 


52  ESS  A  YS. 

more  feet  in  length.  These  runners  arise  not  only  from  the 
base  of  the  stem,  but  from  the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves,  and 
very  frequently  from  the  apex  of  the  weak  ascending  raceme 
itself,  which  is  thus  prolonged  into  a  leafy  stolon,  hanging- 
down  into  the  water  or  mud,  where  it  takes  root.  Its  habit 
and  appearance  are  so  unlike  even  the  summer  state  of  our 
northern  C.  rhomboidea,  that  we  could  not  hesitate  to  con- 
sider it  a  distinct  species.  The  subjoined  diagnostic  character 
will  doubtless  suffice  for  its  discrimination.1 

On  the  7th  of  July  we  started  for  the  high  mountains 
farther  south,  having  hired  a  cumbrous  and  unsightly,  but 
convenient  tilted  wagon,  with  a  pair  of  horses  and  a  driver 
(who  rode  one  of  the  horses,  according  to  the  usual  custom  of 
this  region),  for  the  conveyance  of  our  luggage,  and  which 
afforded  us,  at  intervals,  the  luxury  of  reposing  on  straw  at 
the  bottom,  while  we  were  dragged  along  at  the  rate  of  two  or 
three  miles  an  hour. 

Our  first  day's  journey  of  about  twenty-four  miles  was 
somewhat  tedious,  as  we  found  no  new  plants  of  any  interest. 
We  saw,  however,  a  variety  of  Lonicera  parviflora  f  with 
larger  leaves  and  flowers  than  ordinary,  the  latter  dull  pur- 
plish ;  probably  the  Caprlfolium  bracteosum,  var.  floribus 
violaccopurpureis  of  Michaux.  The  following  morning  we 
reached  the  Watauga  River  (a  tributary  of  the  Holston)  ; 
and  leaving  our  driver  to  follow  up  the  banks  of  the  stream 
to  the  termination  of  the  road  at  the  foot  of  the  Grandfather, 
we  ascended  an  adjacent  mountain,  called  Hanging-rock,  and 
reached  our  quarters  for  the  night  by  a  different  route.  The 
fine  and  close  view  of  the  rugged  Grandfather  amply  rewarded 

1  Cardamine  rotundifolia  (Michx.)  :  glaberrimer  decumbens,  stolonibus 
repentibus,  radice  fibrosa,  foliis  omnibus  conformibus  (radicalibus  ssepe 
trisectis,  segmentis  lateralibus  parvis),  petiolatis  rotundatis  plerumque 
subcordatis  integriusculis  vel  repando  sinuatis,  siliquis  parvis  stylo  subu- 
latis,  stigraate  minuto,  seminibus  ovalibns.  C.  rotundifolia,  Michx.,  Fl.  2, 
p.  30  ;  Hook.,  Bot.  Misc.,  3,  t.  109,  (statu  vernali :  in  exemplis  Caroli- 
nianis  folia  caulinia  magis  petiolata ;)  Darlingt.,  Fl.  Cest.,  ed.  2.  p.  384. 
C.  rotundifolia,  Torr.  &  Gray,  Fl.  N.  Amer.,  i.  p.  88. 

Hab.  in  rivulis  fontibusque  opaculis  montium  Carolina,  Virginia?, 
Kentucky,  et  in  Pennsylvania. 


BOTANICAL    EXCURSION  TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.    53 

the  toil  of  ascending  this  beetling  cliff,  where  we  also  ob- 
tained the  Geum  (Sieversia)  radiation,  probably  the  most 
showy  species  of  the  genus.  The  brilliant  golden  flowers 
have  a  disposition  to  double,  even  in  the  wild  state,  in  which 
we  often  found  as  many  as  eight  or  nine  petals.  This  ten- 
dency would  doubtless  be  fully  developed  by  cultivation. 
Around  the  base  of  these  mountains  we  saw  Blephilia  nepe~ 
toides,  and  another  Labiate  plant  not  yet  in  flower,  which 
we  took  for  Pycncuiihemum  montanum,  Michx. 

The  next  day  (July  9th)  we  ascended  the  Grandfather,  the 
highest  as  well  as  the  most  rugged  and  savage  mountain  we 
had  yet  attempted ;  although  by  no  means  the  most  elevated 
in  North  Carolina,  as  has  generally  been  supposed.1  It  is  a 
sharp  and  craggy  ridge,  lying  within  Ashe  and  Burke  coun- 
ties, very  near  the  northeast  corner  of  Yancey,  and  cutting 
across  the  chain  to  which  it  belongs  (the  Blue  Ridge)  nearly 
at  right  angles.  It  is  entirely  covered  with  trees  except  where 
the  rocks  are  absolutely  perpendicular ;  and  towards  the  sum- 
mit, the  Balsam  Fir  of  these  mountains,  Abies  balsamifera, 
partly,  of  Michaux's  Flora  (but  not  of  the  younger  Mi- 
chaux's  Sylva),  the  A.  Fraseri,  Pursh,  prevails,  accom- 
panied by  the  Abies  nigra  or  Black  Spruce.  The  earth,  rocks, 
and  prostrate  decaying  trunks,  in  the  shade  of  these  trees,  are 
carpeted  with  mosses  and  lichens ;  and  the  whole  present  the 
most  perfect  resemblance  to  the  dark  and  sombre  forests  of 
the  northern  parts  of  New  York  and  Vermont,  except  that  the 
trees  are  here  much  smaller.  The  resemblance  extends  to  the 
whole  vegetation  ;  and  a  list  of  the  shrubs  and  herbaceous 
plants  of  this  mountain  would  be  found  to  include  a  large 
portion  of  the  common  plants  of  the  extreme  northern  States 
and  Canada.2     Indeed  the  vegetation  is  essentially  Canadian, 

1  According  to  Professor  Mitchel's  barometrical  measurements,  the 
Grandfather  attains  the  altitude  of  five  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  the  Roan,  six  thousand  and  thirty- 
eight  feet  ;  and  the  highest  peak  of  the  Black  Mountain,  six  thousand 
four  hundred  and  seventy-six  feet,  which  exceeds  Mount  Washington  in 
New  Hampshire  (hitherto  accounted  the  highest  mountain  in  the  United 
States)  by  more  than  two  hundred  feet. 

2  Among  the  northern  species  which  we  had  not  previously  observed 


54  ESS  A  YS. 

with  a  considerable  number  of  peculiar  species  intermixed. 
Under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Levi  Moody  we  followed  the  Wa- 
tauga, here  a  mere  creek,  for  four  or  five  miles  along  the  base 
of  the  Grandfather,  until  we  reached  a  ridge  which  promised 
a  comparatively  easy  ascent.  In  the  rich  soil  of  this  ridge,  at 
an  elevation  of  about  four  hundred  feet  above  the  Watauga, 
we  found  one  of  the  plants  which  of  all  others  we  were  de- 
sirous of  obtaining,  namely,  Carex  Fraseriana.  Mr.  Curtis 
had  made  diligent  but  ineffectual  search  for  this  most  singu- 
lar and  rarest  of  Carices,  "  along  the  Catawba  near  Morgan- 
ton,"  and  "  near  Table  Mountain,"  where  Fraser  is  said  to 
have  discovered  it ;  and  we  believe  that  no  subsequent  bota- 
nist has  ever  met  with  it,  except  Mr.  Kin,  whose  specimen  in 
Muhlenberg's  herbarium  is  merely  ticketed  "  Deigher  walli  in 
der  Wilternus."  Muhlenberg  assigns  the  habitat,  "  Tiger  Val- 
ley, Pennsylvania ;  "  but  Kin  probably  obtained  his  plant  in 
Tygart's  Valley,  Virginia,  a  secluded  vale  among  the  western 
ranges  of  the  Alleghanies  (in  Randolph  County),  not  far  from 
Greenbrier  Mountains,  and  other  localities  visited  by  this  col- 
lector, as  his  tickets  prove.  Kin  cultivated  the  plant  for  some 
time  at  Philadelphia,  where  it  was  seen  by  several  botanists, 
and  among  them  by  Pursh,  who  took  it  for  the  Mapinia  sylva- 
tica  of  Aublet ;  a  mistake  which  he  did  not  discover  whilst 
writing  his  Flora  in  Europe,  although  he  had  the  culti- 
vated Carex  Fraseriana  before  him.  We  were  too  late  for 
good  specimens,  but  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  considerable 
number  with  the  fruit  still  adherent.  The  plant  grows  in 
tufts,  after  the  manner  of  C.  plantaginea ;  the  evergreen 
leaves  are  a  foot  or  more  in  length,  and  often  an  inch  and  a 
half  in  width,  with  singularly  undulate  margins  ;  the  slender 
scapes  are  naked  except  towards  the  root,  where  they  are 
sheathed  by  the  convulate  bases  of  the  leaves.  To  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  spike,  fruit,  etc.,  we  have  nothing  of  any  conse- 
quence to  add. 

in  this  region,  we  may  mention  Carex  flexuosa,  C.  plantaginea,  C.scabrata, 
C.  intmnescem,  Oxalis  Acetosella,  Streptopus  roseus,  Viburnum  lantanoides, 
and  Platanthera  orbiculata  in  the  finest  condition,  and  in  greater  profusion 
than  we  ever  before  met  with  this,  the  most  striking  of  North  American 

OrcJiidacecB. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     55 

Long  before  we  reached  the  summit  we  again  met  with  the 
new   Saxifraga,1  which  we  had  previously  gathered  on  the 
mountains  near  Jefferson;    but  we   now  found   it    in   great 
abundance,  both  in  flower  and  with  mature  fruit.     It  grew  in 
the  greatest  profusion  on  the  dripping  face  of  a  rocky  preci- 
pice near  our  encampment  for  the  night,  on  the  northwestern 
side  of  the  mountain,  five  or  six  hundred  feet  beneath  the 
highest   summit.     The  vegetation  here  is  so  backward  that 
the  Saxifraga  leucanthemifolia  growing  on  the  brow  of  this 
precipice  was  not  yet  in  blossom,  and  the  Saxifraga  erosa, 
Pursh,  in  the  wet  soil  at  its  base  was  scarcely  out  of  flower, 
while  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  it  had  long  since  shed  its 
seeds.     We  were  therefore  enabled  to  satisfy  ourselves  that 
S.  erosa  belongs  to  the  section  Hydatica,  and  that  the  S. 
Wolleana,  Torr.  &  Gray,  from  a  mountain  near  Bethlehem 
in    Pennsylvania,  is  only  a  variety  of  this    species.     Pursh 
gathered  his  plant  in  Virginia,  "  out  of  a  run  near  the  road 
from  the  Sweet  Springs  to  the  Union  Springs,  five  miles  from 
the  former."    But  if  this  species  be  the  Eobertsonia  micran- 
thifolia  of  Haworth's  Succulent  Plants,  as  is  most  probable, 
and  consequently  the  Aulaxis  micranthlfolia  of  this  author's 

i  Saxifraga  Careyana  (spec,  nov.):  foliis  radicalibus  longe  petiolatis 
glabris  (tenuibus)  ovato-rotundis  grosse  crenato-dentatis  basi  truncate  vel 
subcordatis,  scapo  gracili  nudo  apice  paniculato-cymoso,  flonbus  effusis, 
pedicillis  filiformibus,  petalis  lanceolato-oblongis  sessilibus  sepala  recurva 
plus  duplo  snperantibus,  carpellis  discretis  turgidis  demum  divaricate 
calyce  liberis.  Variat  1,  scapo  petiolisque  glabriusculis  :  2  scapo  pedi- 
cillis nee  non  pagina  foliorum  pilis  viscosis  pubescentibus  :  3,  scapo  f olns 
aut  bracteis  foliaceis  1-2  instrueto  :  4,  foliis  ovalibus  oblongisve,  nunc 
argute  dentatis,  in  petiolum  plus  minus  attenuatis. 

Crescit  in  rupibus  humidis  opacis  altissimorum  montium  comitatus 
Ashe,  prsesertim  ad  montem  Grandfather  dictum,  alt.  3500-5000  pedes: 
Junio  floret.  Herba  spithamaa,  rarius  pedalis.  Flores  parvi.  Fetala 
consimilia,  sessilia,  subtriplinervia,  alba,  immaculata.  Filamenta  subu- 
lato-filiformis.  Carpella  ovoidea,  stylis  brevibus  apiculata,  (stigmatibus 
subincrassatis,)  basi  vix  aut  ne  vix  coalita  ad  maturitatem  per  totam 
suturam  ventralem  dehiscentia,  ut  in  pleris  Saxifragis  plus  minus  apocar- 
peis.  Semina  ovalia,  striis  elevatis  denticulatis  (per  lentem  augentem) 
longitudinaliter  notata.  Species  distinctissima,  habitu  ad  sect.  Hydaticam, 
sed  characteribus  ad  Micrantheum  accedens. 


56  ESSA  YS. 

subsequent  "  Enumeration  of  Saxifragaceous  Plants,"  it  must 
have  been  introduced  into  the  English  gardens  by  Fraser  as 
early  as  1810. 1  We  know  not  how  such  a  common  plant  could 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  Michaux.  Under  the  name  of 
Lettuce  the  leaves  are  eaten  by  the  inhabitants  as  a  salad. 
At  this  same  place  we  also  saw  an  Umbelliferous  plant  not 
yet  in  flower,  which  we  believe  to  be  Conioselinum  Cana- 
dense,  Torr.  &  Gr.  QSelinum  Canadense,  Michx.),  a  very  rare 
plant  in  the  extreme  northern  States  and  Canada,  to  which 
we  had  supposed  it  exclusively  confined.  We  found  plenty 
of  Cimicifuga  Americana,  Michx.,  but  were  obliged  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  specimens  not  yet  in  flower,  and  with 
vestiges  of  the  last  year's  fruit.  It  should  be  collected  in 
September. 

We  were  also  too  early  in  the  season  for  Chelone  Lyoni, 
Pursh,  which  we  found  in  abundance  between  the  precipice 
mentioned  above  and  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  with  the 
flower-buds  just  beginning  to  appear.  Mr.  Curtis  remarks 
that  Mr.  Nuttall  could  not  have  met  with  this  exclusively 
mountain  flower  near  Wilmington ;  and  also,  that  the  C. 
Lyoni  of  Pursh  and  the  C.  latifolia  of  Muhlenberg  and 
Elliott,  are  doubtless  founded  upon  one  and  the  same  species. 
Both,  indeed,  are  said  to  have  been  collected  by  Lyon,  and  the 
leaves  vary  from  ovate-lanceolate  or  oval  with  an  acute  base, 
to  ovate  with  a  rounded  but  scarcely  cordate  base.  Pursh' s 
character  is  drawn  from  a  cultivated  specimen.  Here  we 
again  met  with  the  Aconitum  previously  observed  in  similar 
situations  on  the  Nesro  Mountain,  and  which,  beino;  then  onlv 
in  bud,  we  took  for  the  A.  undnatum,  a  species  collected  in 
this  region  by  Michaux,  and  recently  by  Mr.  Curtis  and  other 
botanists.     We  were  greatly  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  that 

1  The  only  important  discrepancy  respects  Haworth's  character,  "  Co- 
rolla irregularis,  petalis  2  inferioribus  elongatis  divaricantibus  graciliori- 
bus,"  and  "  Flores  albi,  rubro  minute  punctati  "  ;  while  the  petals  in  our 
plant  are  very  nearly  equal  and  similar,  and  pure  white,  except  the  yellow 
spot  at  the  base.  Aulaxis  nuda,  Haworth,  I.  c.  (of  unknown  origin),  ap- 
pears to  be  the  more  ordinary  and  nearly  glabrous  form  of  this  species. 
Mr.  Don's  description  of  S.  erosa,  probably  drawn  from  the  cultivated 
plant,  also  differs  from  our  plant  in  several  minor  points. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.    57 

our  plant,  here  just  coming  into  blossom,  had  cream-colored 
flowers,  very  different  from  those  of  A.  uncinatum,  and  more 
nearly  resembling  those  of  A.  Lycoctonum.1  On  our  return 
to  Jefferson,  we  obtained  good  specimens  at  our  original 
locality,  where  it  is  very  abundant.  The  weak  stems  at  first 
ascending,  become  prostrate  when  the  plant  is  in  flower,  and 
frequently  attain  the  length  of  seven  or  eight  feet.  As  the 
stem  does  not  climb,  and  its  flowers  are  so  different  from 
those  of  A.  uncinatum,  it  can  hardly  be  the  plant  mentioned 
by  Pursh  under  that  species,  which  he  saw  at  the  foot  of  the 
Peaks  of  Otter  and  about  the  Sweet  Springs  in  Virginia.  It 
may  be  remarked  that  the  ovaries  of  A.  uncinatum  are  often 
nearly  glabrous,  and  the  claws  of  the  petals  entirely  so.  The 
seeds  are  strongly  plicate-rugose,  with  a  wing-like  margin  on 
one  side. 

Near  the  summit  of  the  mountain  we  saw  immense  quanti- 
ties of  a  low  but  very  large-leaved  Solidago,  not  yet  in  flower, 
which  I  take  to  be  the  S.  glomerata  of  Michaux,  who  could 
not  have  failed  to  observe  such  a  conspicuous  and  abundant 
plant,  especially  as  it  must  have  been  in  full  blossom  at  the 

1  Aconitum  reclinatum  (spec.  nov.  §  Lycoctonum)  :  caule  elongato 
decum bente  f oliisque  palmatifidis  glabris,  lobis  divaricatis  cuneatis  apicem 
versus  incisis,  racemis  paniculisve  divergentibus  laxifloris  (floribus  albi- 
dis),  bracteolis  minimis,  galea  horizontal  conico-cylindracea  ore  obliquo, 
labio  cucullorum  obcordato  ab  ungue  distante,  calcare  adunco,  filamentis 
edentulis,  carpellis  glabris  2^1-spermis,  seminibus  (immaturis)  squamoso- 
rugosis. 

Hab.  in  opacissimis  sylvis  ad  montes  Negro  Mountain  et  Grandfather 
dictos,  alt.  4000-5000  pedes.  Julio-Augusto  floret.  Caulis  flaccidus, 
adscendens  vel  declinatus,  denique  procumbens,  3-8  pedalis,  ramis  gracili- 
bus,  seu  paniculis  laxifloris,  divaricatis.  Folia  flaccida  ;  inferiora  longe 
petiolata  (circumscriptione  suborbiculari),  profunde  5-7  fida  ;  segmentis 
interdum  2-3  lobatis  apice  incisodentatis  dentibus  mucronatis;  gumma 
subsessilia,  3-5  partita ;  venis  et  pagina  quandoque  superiori  tenu- 
issime  pubescentibus.  Pedicelli  sparsi  (pednnculique  puberuli)  flore 
longiores,  bracteolis  2-3  minimis  stipati.  Flores  minores  quam  in  A. 
Lycoctono,  albi  vix  flavidis  tincti  (in  siccis  leviter  purpurascentes) ;  sepalis 
intus  pilis  aureis  barbatis.  Galea  pritnum  adscendens,  mox  horizontals, 
rostello  brevi  ractiusculo.  Unguis  petalorum  medium  cuculli  adfixus  ; 
saccus  angustus,  ore  valde  obliquo  in  labium  obcordatum  expanso. 
Ovaria  tria,  4-6-ovulata. 


58  ESS  A  YS. 

time  he  ascended  this  mountain.  It  does  not,  however,  al- 
together accord  with  Michaux's  description,  nor  does  that 
author  notice  the  size  of  the  heads,  which  in  our  plant  are 
among  the  largest  of  the  genus.  Specimens  in  flower  were 
procured  by  Mr.  Curtis,  who  visited  this  mountain  at  a  more 
favorable  season.  With  the  latter  we  found  a  Geum,  which 
Mr.  Curtis  had  formerly  observed  on  the  Roan  Mountain 
(where  we  afterwards  met  with  it  in  great  abundance),  and  re- 
ferred, I  think  correctly,  to  G.  geniculatum,  Michx.,  although 
that  species  is  said  to  have  been  collected  in  Canada. 
The  lower  portion  of  the  style  is  less  hairy  in  our  specimens 
than  in  Michaux's  plant,  a  difference  which,  if  constant, 
is  not  perhaps  of  specific  importance.  In  the  subjoined 
character  I  have  supplied  an  inadvertent  omission  in  the 
"  Flora  of  North  America,"  where  the  sessile  head  of  carpels, 
which  so  readily  distinguishes  this  species  from  G.  rivale,  is 
not  mentioned.1  Here  we  again  found  Vaccinium  erythrocar- 
pum,  as  already  mentioned  ;  and  obtained  beautiful  flowering 
specimens  of  Menzlesia  globularis,  a  straggling  shrub  which 
in  this  place  attains  the  height  of  five  or  six  feet. 

1  Geum  geniculatum  (Michx.) :  capitulo  carpellorum  sessili,  articulo  styli 
superiore  plumoso  inferiorem  pubescentem  excedente,  achenio  hirsuto 
petalis  cuneato-obovatis  (nunc  emarginatis  aut  leviter  obcordatis)  exun- 
guiculatis  calycem  sequantibus;  floribus  mox  erectis. 

(3  Macreanum,  articulo  styli  inferiore  sursum  glabrescente.  G.  Macrea- 
num,  M.  A.  Curtis,  in  litt. 

Crescit  in  Canada  ex  Michaux  :  an  recte  ?  Var.  j3  in  umbrosis  ad 
mantes  Grandfather  et  Roan,  Carolina^  Septentrionalis,  alt.  5500-6000 
pedes,  ubi  imprimis  detexit  cl.  Curtis.  Julio  floret.  Caulis  2-3-pedalis, 
gracilis,  foliosus,  inferne  pilis  rigidiusculis  retrorsis,  superne  pilis  mollibus 
patentibus  crebrioribus  villosus.  Folia  membranacea  ;  radicalia  nunc 
palmatim  3-secta,  nunc  interrupte  pinnatisecta,  hand  rariusque  indivisa 
vel  sublobata  in  eodem  stirpe  ;  caulinia  trisecta  trilobatave,  lobis  acutis  ; 
superiora  sessilia.  Flores  minores  et  numerosiores  quam  in  G.  rivali ; 
petala  albida,  venis  purpurascentibus.  Styli  pars  inferior  portione  plu- 
mosa  primum  multo,  postremum  modice  brevior,  in  exemplo  Michx. 
manifeste,  at  juxta  apicem  parce  piloso-pubescens  ;  in  var.  (3  superne 
glabrata. 

Should  the  Carolina  plant  hereafter  prove  to  be  a  distinct  species,  it 
will  of  course  retain  the  name  proposed  by  Mr.  Curtis,  in  honor  of  his 
friend  and  former  associate  in  botanical  labors,  Dr.  James  F.  McRee  of 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     59 

The  only  un wooded  portion  of  the  ridge  which  we  ascended, 
an  exposed  rock  a  few  yards  in  extent,  presents  a  truly  Alpine 
aspect,  being  clothed  with  lichens  and  mosses,  and  with  a 
dense  mat  of  the  mountain  Leiophyllum,  a  stunted  and  much 
branched  shrub  (five  to  ten  inches  high),  with  small  coria- 
ceous leaves  greatly  resembling  Azalea  procumbens.1  The 
much  denser  growth,  and  the  broader,  more  petiolate,  and 
perhaps  uniformly  opposite  leaves,  as  well  as  the  very  differ- 
ent habitat,  would  seem  to  distinguish  the  mountain  plant 
from  the  L.  buxifolium  of  the  Pine  Barrens  of  New  Jersey, 
etc.  ;  but  although  I  think  the  learned  De  Candolle  has  cor- 
rectly separated  the  former,  under  the  name  of  L.  serpyllifo- 
lium  (Ledum  serpyllifolium,  L'Her.  ined.),  it  is  not  easy  to 
find  sufficient  and  entirely  constant  distinctive  characters ; 
since  the  sparse  scabrous  puburluence  of  the  capsule  may  also 
be  observed  upon  the  ovary  of  the  low-country  plant,  in  which 
the  leaves  are  likewise  not  unfrequently  opposite ;  and  no 
reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  length  of  the  pedicels.  The 
synonymy  requires  some  correction ;  the  Ledum  buxifolium 
of  Michaux  ("  in  summis  montibus  excelsis  Carolina?"),  and 
of  Nuttall,  so  far  as  respects  the  plant  which  "  is  extremely 
abundant  on  the  highest  summits  of  the  Catawba  Ridge,"  (that 
is,  on  Table  Mountain,)  as  well  as  the  Leiophyllum  buxifolium 
of  Elliott  (from  the  mountains  of  Greenville  district,  South 
Carolina),  must  be  referred  to  L.  serpyllifolium,  DC.  We 
were  too  late  to  obtain  the  plant  in  blossom,  excepting  one 
or  two  straggling  specimens  ;  but  we  were  so  fortunate  as  to 
obtain  a  few  flowering  specimens  of  Rhododendron  Cataw- 
biense. 

I  should  have  remarked,  that  so  much  time  was  occupied  in 
the  ascent  of  this  mountain  as  nearly  to  prevent  us  from  her- 
borizing around  the  summit  for  that  day ;  since  we  had  to 
descend  some  distance  to  the  nearest  spring  of  water,  and  pre- 
pare our  encampment  for  the   night.     The   branches  of  the 

1  We  are  confident  that  the  latter  does  not  grow  on  the  Grandfather 
Mountain,  as  is  stated  by  Pursh,  on  the  authority  of  a  specimen  collected 
by  Lyon  ;  and  have  little  doubt  that  he  mistook  for  it  this  species  of 
Leiophyllum.     Vide  Pursh,  "  Flora  Amer.  Sept."  i.  pp.  154,  301. 


60  ESS  A  YS. 

Balsam  afforded  excellent  materials  for  the  construction  of 
our  lodge ;  the  smaller  twigs  with  large  mats  of  moss  stripped 
from  the  rocks  furnished  our  bed,  and  the  dead  trees  supplied 
us  with  fuel  for  cooking  our  supper  and  for  the  large  fire  we 
were  obliged  to  keep  up  during  the  night.  We  re-ascended 
the  summit  the  next  morning,  and  devoted  several  hours  to 
its  examination ;  but  the  threatening  state  of  the  weather  pre- 
vented us  from  visiting  the  adjacent  ridges,  or  the  southern 
and  eastern  faces  of  the  mountain,  and  we  were  constrained 
to  descend  towards  evening  to  the  humble  dwelling  of  our 
guide,  which  we  reached  before  the  impending  storm  com- 
menced. 

Our  next  excursion  was  to  the  Roan  Mountain,  a  portion 
of  the  elevated  range  which  forms  the  boundary  between 
North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  distant  nearly  thirty  miles 
southwest  from  our  quarters  at  the  foot  of  Grandfather  by 
the  most  direct  path,  but  at  least  sixty  by  the  nearest  car- 
riage road.  We  traveled  for  the  most  part  on  foot,  loading 
the  horses  with  our  portfolios,  paper,  and  some  necessary  lug- 
gage, crossed  the  Hanging-rock  Mountain  to  Elk  Creek,  and 
thence  over  a  steep  ridge  to  Cranberry  Forge,  on  the  sources 
of  Doe  Eiver,  where  we  passed  the  night.  On  our  way  we 
cut  down  a  Service-tree  (as  the  Amelanchier  Canadensis  is 
here  called),  and  feasted  upon  the  ripe  fruit,  which  through- 
out this  region  is  highly,  and  indeed  justly  prized,  being 
sweet  with  a  very  agreeable  flavor ;  while  in  the  northern 
States,  so  far  as  our  experience  goes,  this  fruit,  even  if  it 
may  be  said  to  be  edible,  is  not  worth  eating.  As  "  Sarvices  " 
are  here  greedily  sought  after,  and  are  generally  procured  by 
cutting  down  the  trees,  the  latter  are  becoming  scarce  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  "  plantations,"  as  the  mountain  settlements  are 
universally  called.  Along  the  streams  we  met  with  the  moun- 
tain species  of  Andromeda  (Leucothoe),  doubtless  Pursh's 
A.  axillaris ;  but  whether  the  original  A.  axillaris  of  the 
"  Hortus  Kewensis  "  pertains  to  this  or  to  the  species  of  the 
low  country,  I  cannot  at  this  moment  ascertain.  A  portion 
of  Pursh's  character  seems  also  to  belong  to  the  low  country 
rather  than  to  the  mountain  species,  and  the  two  are  by  no 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.      61 

means  clearly  distinguished  in  subsequent  works.  The  leaves 
in  our  specimens  are  oblong-lanceolate,  finely  acuminate,  the 
margins  closely  beset  throughout  with  spinulose  -  setaceous 
teeth  ;  and  the  rather  loose  spicate  racemes  (the  corolla  having 
fallen)  are  nearly  half  the  length  of  the  leaves. 

Hitherto  we  had  searched  in  vain  for  the  Astilbe  decandra; 
but  we  first  met  with  this  very  interesting  plant  in  the  rich 
and  moist  mountain  woods  between  Elk  Creek  and  Cranberry 
Forge,  and  subsequently  in  similar  situations,  particularly 
along  the  steep  banks  of  streams,  quite  to  the  base  of  the 
Roan.  Mr.  Curtis  found  it  abundantly  near  the  sources  of 
the  Linville  River,  and  at  the  North  Cove,  where  it  could  not 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  Michaux  ;  and  it  is  doubtless  the 
Spircea  Aruncus  var.  hermaphrodita  of  that  author.  It  in- 
deed greatly  resembles  Sjyircea  Aruncus,  and  at  a  distance  of 
a  few  yards  is  not  easily  distinguished  from  that  plant,  but  on 
a  closer  approach  the  resemblance  is  much  less  striking. 
Michaux  appears  to  have  been  the  original  discoverer  of  this 
plant,  and  from  him  the  specimens  cultivated  in  the  Malmai- 
son  Garden,  and  described  by  Ventenat  under  the  name  of 
Tiarella  biternata,  were  probably  derived.  It  was  afterwards 
collected  by  Lyon,1  and  described  by  Pursh  from  a  specimen 
cultivated  in  Mr  Lambert's  garden  at  Boynton.  We  noticed 
a  peculiarity  in  this  plant,  which  explains  the  discrepancy  be- 
tween Ventenat  and  Pursh  (the  former  having  figured  it  with 
linear-spatulate  petals,  while  the  latter  found  it  apetalous), 
and  perhaps  throws  some  additional  light  upon  the  genus. 
The  flowers  are  dioecio-polygamous,  the  two  forms  differing 
from  each  other  in  aspect  much  as  the  staminate  and  pistillate 
plants  of  Spircea  Aruncus.  In  one  form,  the  filaments  are 
exserted  to  twice  or  thrice  the  length  of  the  calyx,  and  the 
spatulate-linear  petals,  inconspicuous  only  on  account  of  their 
narrowness,  are  nearly  as  long  as  the  stamens  ;   the  ovaries 

1  Muhlenberg's  specimen  was  also  received  from  Lyon.  The  only 
habitat  cited  in  this  author's  catalogue  is  Tennessee,  and  we  ourselves 
collected  it  within  the  limits,  as  well  as  on  the  borders  of  that  State.  The 
late  Dr.  Mcbride  found  it  in  South  Carolina,  near  the  sources  of  the 
Saluda. 


62  ESSAYS.  . 

are  well  formed  and  filled  with  ovules,  which,  however,  so  far 
as  I  have  observed,  are  never  fertilized  ;  and  the  stigmas  are 
smaller  than  in  the  fertile  plant,  and  not  papillose.  In  the 
other  or  fertile  form,  both  the  stamens  and  the  petals  are  in 
an  abortive  or  rudimentary  state,  and  being  shorter  than  the 
sepals,  and  concealed  by  them  in  dried  specimens,  are  readily 
overlooked  ;  the  stigmas  are  large,  truncate,  and  papillose, 
and  a  portion  of  the  ovules  become  fertile.  The  Japanese 
species  (Hoteia  Japonica,  Morr.  &  Decaisne,  the  Spirceu 
Aruncus  of  Thunberg)  appears  to  have  uniform  and  perfect 
flowers  51  but  the  species  from  Nepal  {Astilbe  rivularis,  Don, 
the  Spiraea  barbata  of  W  allien,  but  not  of  Lindley)  is  prob- 
ably polygamo-dioecious,  like  our  own  species  ;  at  least,  the 
flowers  are  apetalous  in  a  fragment  given  me  by  Professor 
Royle,  and  the  stamens  mostly  equal  in  number  to  the  sepals. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  these  three  species  belong  to  a  single 
and  very  natural  genus,  for  which  the  name  of  Astilbe  must 
be  retained  ;  for  I  see  neither  justice  nor  reason  in  supersed- 
ing the  prior  name,  as  suggested  by  Endlicher,2  on  account  of 
the  incompleteness  of  the  character,  which  correctly  describes 
one  state,  at  least,  of  the  plant  intended,  by  the  subsequent 
Hoteia,  the  character  of  which  is  equally  incomplete,  when 
applied  to  the  whole  genus.  The  number  of  genera  which 
are  either  divided  between  North  America,  Japan,  and  the 
mountain  region  of  central  Asia,  or  have  nearly  allied  species 
in  these  countries  or  in  the  two  former,  is  very  considerable  : 
in  other  cases  a  North  American  genus  is  replaced  by  a 
nearly  allied  one  in  Japan,  etc.,  as  Decumaria  by  Schizo- 
phragma,  Schizandra  by  Sphaerostemma,  Hamamelis  by  Cory- 
lopsis,  etc.  I  have  elsewhere  alluded  to  this  subject  and  shall 
probably  consider  it  more  particularly  on  some  future  occasion. 
Our  next  day's  journey  was  from  Cranberry  Forge  to  Crab 

1  "  Flores  in  meo  Japonico  specimine  omnes  inveni  hermaphroditos, 
nee  ullos  polygamos."  (Thunberg,  "  Flora  Japonica,"  p.  212,  sub  Spircea 
Arunco.) 

2  "  Si,  quod  nunc  asserunt  auctores,  Hoteia  et  Astilbe,  Don,  revera 
plantse  congeneres,  posterius  incomplete  ad  auctore  suo  descriptum  sup- 
primendum,  et  prius  egregie  stabilitum  servandum  erit."  (Endlicher, 
"  Genera,"  Suppl.  p.  1416.) 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA.     63 

Orchard  on  Doe  River,  in  Tennessee,  and  up  Little  Doe 
River  to  Squire  Hampton's,  where  we  took  a  guide  and  as- 
cended the  Roan.  While  ascending  the  Little  Doe  River, 
about  three  miles  from  the  junction  with  the  large  stream  of 
that  name,  at  one  of  the  numerous  places  where  the  road 
crosses  this  rivulet,  we  again  met  with  Carex  Fraseriana. 
The  plant  did  not  appear  to  be  so  abundant  in  this  Tennessee 
locality  as  at  the  Grandfather,  but  it  is  doubtless  plentiful  on 
the  mountain  side  just  above.  We  ascended  the  north  side 
of  the  Roan,  through  the  heavy  timbered  woods  and  rank 
herbage  with  which  it  is  covered  ;  but  found  nothing  new  to 
^us  excepting  Streptopus  lanuginosits,  in  fruit,  and  among  the 
grove  of  Rhododendron  maximum  towards  the  summit,  we 
also  collected  Dijihyscium  foliosum,  a  moss  which  we  had 
not  before  seen  in  a  living  state.  In  more  open  moist  places 
near  the  summit,  we  found  the  Hedyotis  (Houstonia)  serpyl- 
lifolia,  still  beautifully  in  flower,  and  the  Geum  geniculatum, 
which  we  have  already  noticed.  It  was  just  sunset  when  we 
reached  the  bald  and  grassy  summit  of  this  noble  mountain, 
and  after  enjoying  for  a  moment  the  magnificent  view  it  af- 
fords, had  barely  time  to  prepare  our  encampment  between 
two  dense  clumps  of  Rhododendron  Catawbiense,  to  collect 
fuel,  and  make  ready  our  supper.  The  night  was  so  fine 
that  our  slight  shelter  of  Balsam  boughs  proved  amply  suf- 
ficient ;  the  thermometer,  at  this  elevation  of  about  six  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  being  64°  Fahr.  at  mid- 
night, and  60°  at  sunrise.  The  temperature  of  a  spring  just 
under  the  brow  of  the  mountain  below  our  encampment  we 
found  to  be  47°  Fahr.  The  Roan  is  well  characterized  by 
Professor  Mitchell  as  the  easiest  of  access  and  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  all  the  high  mountains  of  that  region.  "  With  the 
exception  of  a  body  of  (granitic)  rocks,  looking  like  the  ruins 
of  an  old  castle,  near  its  southwestern  extremity,  the  top  of 
the  Roan  may  be  described  as  a  vast  meadow  (about  nine 
miles  in  length,  with  some  interruptions,  and  with  a  maximum 
elevation  of  six  thousand  and  thirty-eight  feet),  without  a 
tree  to  obstruct  the  prospect ;  where  a  person  may  gallop  his 
horse  for  a  mile  or  two,  with  Carolina  at  his  feet  on  one  side, 


64  ESS  A  YS. 

and  Tennessee  on  the  other,  with  a  great  ocean  of  mountain 
raised  into  tremendous  billows  immediately  about  him.  It  is 
the  pasture  ground  for  the  young  horses  of  the  whole  country 
about  it  during  the  summer.  We  found  the  strawberry  here 
in  the  greatest  abundance  and  of  the  finest  quality,  in  regard 
to  both  size  and  flavor,  on  the  30th  of  July."  ' 

At  sunrise  we  had  fine  weather  and  a  most  extensive  view 
of  the  surrounding  country.  In  one  direction  we  could  count 
from  eight  to  twelve  successive  ranges  of  mountains,  and 
nearly  all  the  higher  peaks  of  this  whole  region  were  dis- 
tinctly visible.  Soon,  however,  we  were  enveloped  in  a  dense 
fog  which  continued  for  several  hours,  during  which  time 
we  traversed  the  southwestern  summit  and  made  a  list  of 
the  plants  we  saw.  The  herbaceous  plants  of  this  bald  and 
rounded  summit  are  chiefly  Aira  flexuosa,  Juncus  tenuis. 
Car  ex  intumescens,  festucacea,  cestivalis  of  Mr.  Curtis,  and  a 
narrow-leaved  variety  of  C.  Pennsylvania,  the  latter  consti- 
tuting the  greater  part  of  the  grassy  herbage,  Luzula  campes- 
tris,  Lilium  Philadelphicum  and  Canadense,  which  here 
only  attain  the  height  of  from  four  to  eight  inches,  Sisyrin- 
chium  anceps,  Smilacina  bifolia,  Habenaria  (Plat  anther  a) 
peramoena,  Veratrum  viride,  Helonias  (  Chamcelirium)  dioi- 
ca,  Osmunda  Claytoniana,  Linn.  (O.  interrupta,  Michx.), 
Athyrium  asplenloides,  Pedicularis  Canadensis,  mostly  with 
purplish-brown  flowers,  now  just  in  blossom,  Trautvetteria 
palmata,  Ranunculus  repens,  Thalictrum  dioicum  just  in 
flower,  Geum  radiatum  in  the  greatest  profusion  (it  was 
here  that  Michaux  obtained  this  species),  Potentilla  triden- 
tata  and  Canadensis,  Frag  aria  Virginiana,  the  fruit  just 
ripe  and  of  the  finest  flavor,  Pubus  villosus  now  in  flower, 
Castilleja  coccinea,  Geranium  maculatum,  Clematis  Viorna 
about  eight  inches  high,  Sanicula  Marilandica,  Zizia  aurea, 
Heracleum  lanatum,  Hypericum  corymbosum,  with  larger 
flowers  than  usual,  a  more  upright  and  larger-leaved  variety 
of    Hcdyotis    serpyllifolia,    (Enorthera   glauca   /?,     Senecio 

1  Professor  Mitchell  of  the  Chapel  Hill  University,  in  the  "  Raleigh 
Register "  of  November  3,  1835,  and  in  the  "  American  Journal  of 
Science  and  Arts  "  for  January,  1839. 


BOTANICAL   EXCURSION   TO   NORTH   CAROLINA.     65 

Balsamitce,  Rudbechia  triloba,  and  a  dwarf  variety  of   B. 
laciniata,    Liatris  spicata,    Cacalia  atriplicifolia,    Cynthia 
Virginica,  Aster  acuminatus,   Solidago  bicolor,  S.  spitha- 
mea,  (Curtis   in  Torr.  &  Gray,  Fl.  ined.,)  a    very  distinct 
dwarf  species,  S.  Curtisii,  Torr  &  Gr.  I  c,  not  yet  in  flower, 
and  S.  glomerata  in  the  same  state  as  at  Grandfather  Moun- 
tain ;  also  Saxifraga  leucanthemifolia,  Sedum  telephioides, 
Heuchera  villosa,  Polypodium  vulgare,  the  dwarf  variety  of 
Hedyotis  purpurea  previously  noticed,  Scirpus  ccespitosus, 
and  Agrostis  rupestris  !  which  are  confined  to  the  rocky  pre- 
cipice already  mentioned.     The  only  tree  is  Abies  Fraseri, 
a  few  dwarf  specimens  of  which  extend  into  the  open  ground 
of  the  summit ;  and  the  following  are  all  the  shrubs  which 
we  observed,  namely,  Biervilla  trifida,   Menziesia  globula- 
Hs,  Vaccinium  erythocarpum,  Rhododendron    Catawbiense, 
forming  very  dense  clumps,  Leiophyllum  serpyUifolium,  Mor- 
bus Americana,  two   to  four  feet   high,  Crataegus  punctata 
only  a  foot  in  height,  Pyrus  arbutifolia  var.  melanocarpa, 
Ribes  rotundifolium  ;  and  a  low  and  much  branched  species 
of  Alder,  which  Mr.  Curtis  proposes  to  call  Alnus  Mitchel- 
liana,   in  honor  of  Professor  Mitchell ;  but  we  fear  it  may 
prove  to  be  a  variety  of  what  we  deem  the  A.  crispa,  Ait. 
from  the  mountains  of  New  York,  New  Hampshire,  etc.,  and 
Newfoundland,  although  it  has  more  rounded  leaves  with  the 
lower  surface  nearly  glabrous,  except  the  primary  veins  ;  while 
in  the  former  (to  which  the  names  of  A.  crispa  and  A.  vndu- 
lata  are  not  very  appropriate),  the  leaves  are  often,  but  not 
always,   somewhat   velvety-pubescent  beneath.     To    our    list 
must  be  added  any  apparently  undescribed  species  of  Vacci- 
nium, first  noticed  by  Mr.  Constable.1     We   made   a  hasty 
i  Vaccinium    Constablcei   (spec,  nov.)  :    pumilum,   foliis    deciduis    ova- 
libus  pallidis  subtus  glaucis  reticulato-venosisque  glanduloso-mucronatis 
integerrimis  vel  obsoletissime  serrulatis  ciliatis,  racemis  brevissimis  ses- 
silibus,  bracteis  squamaceis  parvis  caducis,  corollis  brevissime  cylindnc-is, 
antheris  inclusis  muticis,  ovariis  10-locularibus,  loculis  piuri-ovulatis. 

In  summo  jugo  "Roan  Mountain"  dicto  (Tennessee  et  Carolina  Sep- 
tentrional!), ad  alt.  6000  pedes.  Julio  floret.  -  Frutex  1-5-pedal*, 
erectus,  ramis  griseo-viridibus  teretis.  Folia  sesqui-biunciaha,  lato-ova- 
lia  vel  elliptica,  utrinque  saapius  acuta,  glabra,  nisi  costa  supra  puberula 


66  ESS  A  VS. 

visit  to  the  other  principal  summit,  where  we  found  nothing 
that  we  had  not  already  collected,  excepting  A  renaria  glabra, 
Michx.,  and  descended  partly  by  way  of  the  contiguous  Yel- 
low Mountain. 

Retracing  our  steps,  we  returned  the  next  day  to  the  foot 
of  Grandfather,  and  reached  our  quarters  at  Jefferson  the 
second  day  after.  We  had  frequently  been  told  of  an  anti- 
dote to  the  bite  of  the  Rattlesnake  and  Copperhead  (not  un- 
frequent  throughout  this  region),  which  is  thought  to  possess 
wonderful  efficacy,  called  Thurman's  Snake-root  after  an  "  In- 
dian Doctor,"  who  first  employed  it ;  the  plant  was  brought  to 
us  by  a  man  who  was  ready  to  attest  its  virtues  from  his  per- 
sonal knowledge,  and  proved  to  be  the  Sllene  stellata  !  Its  use 
was  suggested  by  the  markings  of  the  root  beneath  the  bark, 
in  which  these  people  find  a  fancied  resemblance  to  the  skin 
of  the  Rattlesnake.  Nearly  all  the  reputed  antidotes  are 
equally  inert ;  such  herbs  as  Impatiens  pallida,  etc.,  being 
sometimes  employed ;  so  that  we  are  led  to  conclude  that  the 
bite  of  these  reptiles  is  seldom  fatal,  or  even  very  dangerous, 
in  these  cooler  portions  of  the  country. 

About  the  foot  of  the  Roan  and  Grandfather  we  obtained 
et  margines  ciliati,  subsessilia,  infra  saturate  glauca.  Racemi  5-10- 
flori,  ssepe  corymbosi,  ad  apicem  ramulorum  anni  prsecedentis  solitarii  vel 
aggregati.  Baccse  immature  cserulese,  glaucse,  limbo  calycis  majusculo 
coronatae,  decern-  (nunc  abortu  quinque  ?)  loculares  ;  loculis  pleio  (3-6  ?) 
spermis. 

Professor  Dunal  (in  DC.  Prodr.  7,  p.  566)  notices  as  an  extraordinary 
exception  to  the  character  of  Vaccinium,  a  species  with  an  8-10-celled  fruit 
and  a  single  (?)  seed  in  each  cell.  The  first- named  character  is  not  un- 
f requent  in  the  genus  :  several  of  the  more  common  species  which  I  have 
cursorily  examined,  exhibit  a  more  or  less  completely  8-10-celled  ovary, 
but  with  many  ovules  in  each  cell.  There  is  a  small  group,  however 
[Decachcena,  Torr.  &  Gray  ined.],  presenting  a  different  structure,  which 
is  best  exemplified  in  V.  resinosum,  Ait.  The  10  carpels  of  this  species, 
inclosed  in  the  baccate  calyx,  are  very  slightly  coherent  with  each  other, 
and  become  crustaceous  or  bony  nuts,  each  containing  a  single  ascending 
seed.  The  same  is  the  case  in  what  I  take  to  be  V.  dumosum  and  V.  hir- 
tellum ;  and  probably  in  some  other  species  which  have  the  leaves 
sprinkled  with  resinous  dots.  V.  frondosum,  Willd.  (which  is  the  V.  de- 
camerocarpon  of  Dunal),  is  similar  in  structure,  except  that  the  carpels 
appear  to  be  more  coherent  and  less  indurated. 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION  TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     67 

a  few  specimens  of  Pycnanthemum  montanum,  Michx.  (Mo- 
nardella,  Benth.)  just  coming  into  blossom.  Our  plant  ac- 
cords with  Michaux's  description,  except  that  there  are  fre- 
quently two  or  even  three  axillary  heads  besides  the  terminal 
one.  The  flowers  have  altogether  the  structure  of  Pycnanthe- 
mum, and  the  upper  lip  of  the  corolla  is  entire  ;  so  that  it 
cannot  belong  to  Monardella,  although  placed  as  the  leading 
species  of  that  genus.  As  to  the  species  from  which  Mr.  Bent- 
ham  derived  the  generic  name  (Pycnanthemum  Monardella, 
Michx.),  I  am  by  no  means  certain  that  it  belongs  either  to 
Pycnanthemum  or  Monardella.  The  specimen  in  the  Mi- 
chauxian  herbarium  is  not  out  of  flower,  as  has  been  thought, 
but  the  inflorescence  is  undeveloped,  and  perhaps  in  an  abnor- 
mal state.  In  examining  a  small  portion  taken  from  the  head, 
I  found  nothing  but  striate-nerved  bracts,  obtuse  and  villous 
at  the  apex,  and  abruptly  awned ;  the  exterior  involucrate 
and  often  lobed ;  the  innermost  linear,  and  tipped  with  a  sin- 
gle awn.  The  aspect  of  the  plant,  also,  is  so  like  Monarda 
fistulosa,  that  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think  it  a  somewhat 
monstrous  state  of  that,  or  some  nearly  allied  species ;  in 
which  case,  the  genus  Monardella  should  be  restricted  to  the 
Californian  species.  Pursh's  P.  Monardella,  I  may  observe, 
was  collected  beneath  the  Natural  Bridge  in  Virginia,  where 
we  also  obtained  the  plant,  and  subsequently  met  with  it 
throughout  the  mountains.  It  is  certainly  a  form  of  Monarda 
fistulosa,  according  to  Bentham's  characters,  but  the  taste  is 
much  less  pungent,  the  throat  of  the  calyx  less  strongly 
bearded  than  is  usual  in  that  species,  and  the  corolla  nearly 
white.  We  thought  it  probably  a  distinct  species  ;  but  these 
differences  may  be  owing  to  the  deep  shade  in  which  it  com- 
monly occurs.  The  P.  Monardella  of  Elliott,  according  to 
his  herbarium,  is  identical  with  that  of  Pursh.  We  collected 
in  Ashe  County  several  other  species  of  Pycnanthemum,  and 
in  the  endeavor  to  discriminate  them,  we  encountered  so 
many  difficulties  that  I  am  induced  to  give  a  revision  of  the 
whole  genus. 

Some    additional    plants   were   obtained   around  Jefferson 
which  were  not  previously  in  blossom,  such   as  Campanula 


68  ESSAYS. 

divaricata  ;  Cacalia  renlformis  ;  Sliphium  perfol latum  ;  the 
larger  form  oi  Coreopsis  aurieulata,  with  nearly  all  the  leaves 
undivided ;  the  glabrous  and  narrow-leaved  variety  of  C.  seni- 
folia  ( C.  stellata,  Nutt.)  which  alone  occurs  in  this  region  ; 
Melanihium  Virginicum,  which  is  a  very  handsome  plant,  with 
the  flowers  cream-colored  when  they  first  expand  ;  and  Ste- 
nanthium  angustifolium,  Gray,  which  is  doubtless  iheHelonias 
graminea  of  the  "  Botanical  Magazine."  We  also  made  an 
excursion  to  the  White  Top  in  Virginia,  twenty  miles  north- 
west from  Jefferson  ;  a  mountain  of  the  same  character  as  the 
Roan,  but  on  a  smaller  scale,  and  with  the  pasturage  of  its 
summit  more  closely  fed.  We  were  not  rewarded,  however, 
with  any  new  plants,  and  the  cloudy  weather  obscured  the 
prospect,  which  is  said  to  be  very  extensive.  On  our  return, 
we  found  Cedronella  cordata,  Benth.,  nearly  out  of  flower, 
with  runners  often  two  or  three  feet  in  length.  Mr.  Bentham 
has  omitted  to  mention  the  agreeable  balsamic  odor  of  the 
genus,  which  in  our  plant  is  much  less  powerful  than  in  C. 
triphyllei.  We  saw  plenty  of  Cimicifuga  Americana,  but 
the  flowers  were  still  unexpanded.  Our  endeavors  to  obtain 
the  fruit  of  Cimicifuga  cordifolia  (common  in  this  region) 
were  likewise  unsuccessful ;  without  which  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  distinguish  this  species  from  C.  racemosa.  The  leaf- 
lets of  the  former  are  frequently  very  large,  the  terminal  ones 
resembling  the  leaves  of  the  Vine  in  size  and  shape,  as  re- 
marked by  De  Candolle ;  in  one  instance  we  found  them  ten 
inches  in  diameter ;  but  they  are  generally  much  smaller  and 
more  divided,  apparently  passing  into  the  former  species. 
The  number  of  the  ovaries  does  not  afford  marked  characters, 
since  the  lowest  flowers  of  C.  racemosa  sometimes  present 
two,  while  the  upper  ones  of  (7.  cordifolia  are  almost  always 
monogynous. 

We  were  too  early  in  the  season  for  several  interesting 
plants,  especially  Composites,  and  did  not  extend  our  re- 
searches far  enough  south  to  obtain  many  others  ;  such  as 
Hudsonia  montana,  which  appears  to  be  confined  to  Table 
Mountain,  Rhododendron  punctatum,  Stuartia  pentagyna, 
Philadelphus  hirsutus,  Silene  ovata  (which  Mr.  Curtis  found 


BOTANICAL  EXCURSION   TO  NORTH   CAROLINA.     69 

in  Buncombe  and  Haywood  counties),  Berheris  Canadensis 
(which,  however,  Fursh  collected  on  the  mountains  of  Green- 
brier in  Virginia),  Parnassia  asarifolia  (which  according 
to  Mr.  Curtis  first  appears  in  Yancey  County,  but  Pursh 
procured  it  from  "  mountain  runs  on  the  Salt  Pond  Mountain, 
Virginia,  and  on  the  top  of  the  Alleghanies  near  Christian- 
burg  "),and,  above  all,  the  new  Thermopsis;  (T7.  Caroliniana, 
M.  A.  Curtis,  MSS.)  recently  discovered  by  our  friend  Mr. 
Curtis,  in  Haywood  and  Cherokee  counties.  We  were  like- 
wise unsuccessful  in  our  search  for  a  remarkable  undescribed 
plant,  with  a  habit  of  Pyrola  and  the  foliage  of  Galax,  which 
was  obtained  by  Michaux  in  the  high  mountains  of  Carolina. 
The  only  specimen  extant  is  among  the  "  Plantar  incognitas  " 
of  the  Michauxian  herbarium,  in  fruit  only;  and  we  were 
anxious  to  obtain  flowering  specimens,  that  we  might  complete 
its  history ;  as  I  have  long  wished  to  dedicate  the  plant  to 
Professor  Short  of  Kentucky,  whose  attainments  and  emi- 
nent services  in  North  American  botany  are  well  known  and 
appreciated  both  at  home  and  abroad.1 

We  left  this  interesting  region  near  the  end  of  July,  re- 
turning to  New  York  by  way  of  Raleigh,  Richmond,  etc.  ;  and 
found  a  marked  change  in  the  vegetation  immediately  on 
crossing  the  Blue  Ridge.  I  cannot  extend  these  remarks  to 
the  plants  observed  in  our  homeward  journey,  except  to  men- 
tion that  the  Schrankia  of  this  part  of  the  country,  which  ex- 
tends to  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  is  the  S.  ancju- 
stata,  Torr.  &  Gray ;  at  least  we  observed  no  other  species. 

1  Shortia,  Torrey  &  Gray.  Calyx  quinquesepalus  ;  sepala  imbricata, 
squamacea,  striata,  persistentia,  exteriora  ovata,  interiora  oblonga. 
Corolla — Stamina — Capsula  calyce  brevior,  subglobosa,  stylo  filiform  i 
(subpersistente)  superata,  trilocularis,  loculicide  trivalvis,  valvis  medio 
septiferis  placenta  centrali  magna  persistente.  Semina  multa,  parva  ; 
testa  nucleo  conformis.  Embryo  teres,  reetiusculus,  albumine  brevior. 
Herba  caespitosa  ?  subaculis,  perenni,  glabra  ;  foliis  longe  petiolatis, 
rotundatis,  subcordatis,  apice  nunc  retusis,  crenato-serratis,  erenaturis 
mucronatis  ;    scapis  unifloris,  nudis,  apicem  versus  squamoso-bracteatis. 

S.  galacifolia,  Torrey  &  Gray.  (V.  spec.  sice,  in  herb.  Mickx.,  cum 
schedula,  "  Hautes  montagnes  de  Carolinie.  An  Pyrola  spec.  ?  an  genus 
novum  ?  ") 


70  ESSAYS. 

This  is  doubtless  the  S.  uncinata  of  De  Candolle  ;  but  not,  I 
think,  of  Willdenow.  I  may  here  remark,  that  the  reticulate- 
leaved  species  (/$.  uncinata,  Torr.  &  Gr.)  is  the  Leptoglottis 
of  De  Candolle  ("  Mem  Legum  "),  as  I  have  ascertained  from 
a  fragment  of  the  original  specimen  in  the  rich  herbarium  of 
Mr.  AVebb,  which  that  gentleman  obligingly  sent  me  ;  but  I 
find  no  neutral  flowers  or  sterile  filaments  in  the  numerous 
specimens  of  this  plant,  from  different  localities,  which  I  have 
from  time  to  time  examined. 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF  TREES. 

The  "  Histoire  des  Arbres  Forestieres  de  l'Amerique  Sep- 
tentrionale  "  *  of  the  younger  Michaux  is  chiefly  known  in 
this  country  through  the  English  translation  made  by  Mr. 
Hillhouse,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  author,  who 
added  some  new  plates,  and  information  not  contained  in  the 
French  edition.  It  was  published  in  Paris  in  the  year  1819. 
We  have  no  intention  of  formally  reviewing,  at  this  late  day, 
a  work  of  such  long-established  reputation  as  the  Sylva  of 
Michaux.  It  has  been  the  standard  treatise  upon  the  subject 
ever  since  its  publication ;  and  it  well  deserves  the  rank  it 
holds.  We  wish  rather  to  offer  our  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments to  the  memory  of  the  late  Mr.  William  Maclure  for 
his  liberal  endeavors  to  render  this  important  and  quite  ex- 
pensive work  more  generally  accessible  in  the  country,  the 
noble  forests  of  which  it  is  designed  to  illustrate.  In  fur- 
therance of  this  object,  Mr.  Maclure,  if  we  are  rightly  in- 
formed, purchased  in  Paris  the  copies  which  remained  unsold 
the  year  after  its  publication,  and  sold  them  in  the  United 
States  at  a  very  reduced  price.  With  liberal  forethought, 
he  bought  also  the  original  copperplates  of  this  book,  and  of 
several  other  expensive  works  of  science  and  art ;  intending 
to  have  them  reprinted  in  this  country  in  a  cheaper  form,  so 
as  to  insure  them  a  wider  circulation.2  During  the  last  twelve 
years  of  his  life,  or  from  the  time  of  the  total  failure  of  the 
"  great  social  experiment"  made  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana,  by 
the  celebrated  Robert  Owen  and  himself,  down  to  his  decease 
in  1840,  Mr.  Maclure  resided  in  the  city  of  Mexico.     The 

1  "  North  American  Review,"  July,  1844. 

2  Among  these  are  the  complete  copperplates  of  Veillot's  "  Histoire 
Naturelle  des  Oiseaux  de  l'Amenqne  Septentrionale  "  ;  and  Audebert's 
"  Histoire  Naturelle  des  Oiseaux,"  etc. 


72  ESSAYS. 

great  interest  which  he  still  felt  in  the  advancement  and  dif- 
fusion of  scientific  knowledge  in  this  country,  was  manifested 
by  his  continued  and  munificent  benefactions  to  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences  at  Philadelphia.1  It  was  his  desire  also 
that  some  competent  person,  at  his  expense,  should  collect 
additional  information  respecting  the  forest  trees  of  North 
America,  and  prepare  a  new  and  augmented  edition  of 
Michaux's  Sylva.  Although  this  generous  plan  was  not  car- 
ried into  execution  in  Mr.  Maclure's  lifetime,  we  understand 
that  he  left  testamentary  instructions  for  its  accomplishment, 
or  at  least  for  the  reprint  of  Michaux's  original  work. 

Mr.  Maclure's  munificent  intentions  are  —  fulfilled,  shall 
we  say?  by  the  edition  now  before  us,  printed  at  New  Har- 
mony, Indiana,  upon  wretched,  flimsy,  whity-brown  paper,  of 
texture  scarcely  firm  enough  to  receive  the  impression  of  the 
worn-out  type,  which  seems  to  have  done  long  service  in  the 
columns  of  some  country  newspaper.  The  engravings,  to  do 
the  work  full  justice,  are  very  good,  at  least  in  the  colored 
copies  ;  being  impressions  from  the  original  plates  imported 
by  Mr.  Maclure,  and  colored  after  the  French  edition.  The 
subscription  price  was  high  enough  to  pay  for  the  best  typog- 
raphy and  paper ;  and  so  popular  a  work  would  surely  have 
found  a  ready  sale  at  any  reasonable  price,  as  the  Paris  edi- 
tion had  been  long  out  of  print.  We  are  bound  to  suppose 
that  the  testamentary  instructions  of  the  late  Mr.  Maclure 
liave  been  literally  fulfilled.  How  far  his  generous  inten- 
tions have  been  answered,  or  to  what  extent  defeated,  by  the 
wretched  character  of  the  reprint,  are  questions  which  we 
shall  not  attempt  to  answer,  except  by  stating  that,  far  from 
having  obtained  the  wide  circulation  which  Mr.  Maclure 
desired,  these  volumes  have  entirely  disappeared  from  the 
shelves  of  our  booksellers,  where,  so   far   as  we    can  learn, 

1  Besides  his  invaluable  library  of  nearly  4000  volumes,  containing 
the  choicest  works  in  natural  history,  antiquities,  the  fine  arts,  voyages 
and  travels,  etc.,  and  many  smaller  contributions  to  this  flourishing  insti- 
tution, of  which  he  was  president  for  more  than  twenty  years,  Mr.  Ma- 
clure presented  to  it,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  the  sum  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  See  Dr.  Morton's  "  Memoir  of  William  Maclure," 
Philadelphia,  1841. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  73 

there  was  no  demand  for  them  ;  and  our  diligent  attempt  to 
find  a  single  copy  in  the  public  and  private  libraries  of  three 
of  our  largest  cities  has  proved  entirely  unsuccessful. 

The  foundation  of  the  North  American  Sylva  was  laid  by 
the  laborious  researches  of  the  elder  Michaux ;  who,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  French  government,  devoted  ten  years, 
from  1785  to  1796,  to  a  thorough  exploration  of  the  country, 
from  the  sunny,  sub-tropical  groves  of  Florida  to  the  cold 
and  inhospitable  shores  of  Hudson's  Bay ;  repeatedly  visiting 
nearly  all  the  higher  peaks  and  deepest  recesses  of  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains,  and  extending  his  toilsome  journeys  west- 
ward to  the  prairies  of  Illinois  and  the  banks  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. He  had  formed  indeed,  and  was  only  prevented  by 
untoward  circumstances  from  executing,  a  plan  —  more  hardy 
than  we  can  well  conceive  at  this  late  day  —  for  ascending 
the  Missouri  to  its  sources,  and  crossing  the  mountains  into 
the  then  untrodden  but  now  litigated  country  on  the  Oregon. 
The  curious  reader  will  find  an  extract  from  his  private  diary 
in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts  "  for  January, 
1842  ; l  showing  that  he  had  laid  his  plans  and  proposals  upon 
this  subject  before  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  was  then  Secretary  of 
State.  The  papers  submitted  by  him  may  have  suggested  the 
scheme  of  the  national  expedition  of  discovery,  soon  after- 
wards ordered  by  Jefferson,  and  nobly  carried  into  effect  by 
Lewis  and  Clarke. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  France,  and  the  year  before  he 
fell  a  victim  to  scientific  zeal  upon  the  coast  of  Madagascar, 
the  elder  Michaux  published  his  History  of  North  American 
Oaks ; 2  which  may  be  deemed  the  nucleus  of  the  more  com- 
prehensive work  subsequently  published  by  his  son.  The 
younger  Michaux  accompanied  his  father  in  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  his  travels,  through  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
Florida  ;  but  he  afterwards  returned  to  Europe.  Revisiting 
this  country  in  the  autumn  of  1801,  and  passing  the  winter 
in  South  Carolina,  he  traveled,  during  the  following  season, 

1  Vol.  xlii.  p.  7. 

2  "  Histoire  des  Chenes  de  l'Ame'rique  Septentrionale."  Par  A.  Mi- 
chaux.    Paris,  1801.     1  vol.  fol. 


74  ESSAYS. 

from  New  York,  across  the  mountains  in  Pennsylvania,  to  the 
Ohio,  and  carefully  explored  the  States  of  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee ;  thence,  recrossing  the  mountains  in  North  Carolina  to 
Charleston,  he  again  embarked  for  France.1  Again  returning 
in  1807,  he  journeyed  along  the  whole  extent  of  our  Atlantic 
coast,  and  visited  the  principal  ports  to  examine  the  timber 
employed  in  shipbuilding  and  in  workshops  of  every  descrip- 
tion ;  besides  making  separate  excursions  into  the  interior  : 
"  the  first,  along  the  rivers  Kennebec  and  Sandy,  passing- 
through  Hallowell,  Norridgevvock,  and  Farming-ton  ;  the  sec- 
ond, from  Boston  to  Lake  Champlain  ;  the  third,  from  New 
York  to  the  lakes  Ontario  and  Erie ;  the  fourth,  from  Phila- 
delphia to  the  borders  of  the  rivers  Monongahela,  Alleghany, 
and  Ohio;  and  the  fifth,  from  Charleston  to  the  sources  of 
the  Savannah  and  Oconee."  Having  thus  faithfully  collected 
the  requisite  information,  his  great  work  upon  our  forest  trees 
—  the  fruit  of  so  much  labor  —  was  published  at  Paris  in 
1810-13. 

But  this  work  is  not  the  only  result  of  the  well  directed  in- 
dustry and  zeal  of  the  elder  and  the  younger  Michaux.  To 
these  two  persons,  chiefly,  are  the  French  plantations  indebted 
for  their  surpassingly  rich  collections  of  American  trees  and 
shrubs ;  which  long  since  gave  rise  to  the  remark,  as  true  at 
this  day  as  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  that  an  American  must 
visit  France  to  see  the  productions  of  his  native  forests. 
When  shall  it  be  said  that  the  statement  is  no  longer  true? 
When  shall  we  be  able  to  point  to  a  complete,  or  even  a  re- 
spectable, American  collection  of  our  indigenous  trees  and 
shrubs  ? 

A  few  words  will  suffice  for  the  second  work  on  our  list.2 

1  The  observations  made  in  this  tour  are  recorded  in  his  "  Voyages  a 
l'Ouest  de  Monts  Alle'ghanys,"  8vo,  Paris,  1804  ;  and  in  a  "  Me'moire  sur 
la  Naturalisation  des  Arbres  Forestieres  de  l'Ame'rique  Septentrionale," 
8^o,  Paris,  1805. 

2  "  The  North  American  Sylva  "  ;  or  a  description  of  the  forest  trees 
of  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Nova  Scotia,  not  described  in  the  work 
of  F.  Andrew  Michaux,  and  containing  all  the  forest  trees  discovered  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Territory  of  Oregon  down  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific  and  into  the  confines  of  California,  as  well  as  in  various  parts  of 
the  United  States  ;  illustrated  by  122  fine  plates. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  75 

Mr.  Nuttall,  it  appears,  first  arrived  in  this  country  the  very 
year  that  the  younger  Michaux  finally  left  it.  And  from  that 
time  to  the  present,  no  botanist  has  visited  so  large  a  portion 
of  the  United  States,  or  made  such  an  amount  of  observa- 
tions in  the  field  and  forest.  Probably  few  naturalists  have 
ever  excelled  him  in  aptitude  for  such  observations,  in  quick- 
ness of  eye,  tact  in  discrimination,  and  tenacity  of  memory. 
In  some  of  these  respects,  perhaps,  he  may  have  been  equalled 
by  Rafinesque,  —  and  there  are  obvious  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  later  writings  of  the  two,  which  might  tempt  us 
to  continue  the  parallel ;  —  but  in  scientific  knowledge  and 
judgment  he  was  always  greatly  superior  to  that  eccentric 
individual.  Mr.  Nuttall  has  also  enjoyed  the  best  opportuni- 
ties for  exploring  the  wide  regions  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
In  1811,  along  with  Mr.  Bradbury,  he  ascended  the  Missouri 
to  the  Mandan  villages  1600  miles  above  its  mouth  ;  and 
shortly  after  his  return  published  his  extended  and  most  hap- 
pily executed  botanical  work,  the  "  Genera  of  North  Ameri- 
can Plants."  In  1819,  at  the  imminent  risk  of  his  life,  he 
ascended  the  Arkansas  to  the  Great  Salt  River.  And,  in 
1834,  he  finally  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains 
by  the  now  well-trodden  road  along  the  sources  of  the  Platte, 
and  exploring  the  territory  of  Oregon  and  of  Upper  Cali- 
fornia. Mr.  Nuttall  was  therefore  peculiarly  qualified  for 
the  preparation  of  a  supplementary  North  American  Sylva, 
designed  especially  to  comprise  the  forest  trees  of  these  wide 
regions,  which  are  now,  for  obvious  reasons,  attracting  par- 
ticular attention. 

The  work,  according  to  the  announcement  on  the  title-page, 
will  consist  of  three  volumes  ;  and  we  understand  that  the 
editor  committed  the  whole  manuscript  to  the  publisher's 
hands  more  than  two  years  ago,  when  he  returned  to  his  na- 
tive country,  to  take  possession  of  an  ample  family  inheri- 
tance. But  from  some  cause,  the  publication  has  been  greatly 
delayed ;  only  one  volume  having  yet  appeared,  and  that  in 
two  portions,  of  which  the  first  bears  the  date  of  1842,  while 
the  second  has  but  just  reached  us.  We  postpone  all  critical 
remarks  until  the  entire  publication  is  completed  ;  merely  ob- 


76  ESSAYS. 

serving,  lest  the  interests  of  the  publisher  should  suffer  from 
nominal  connection  between  this  work  and  the  New  Harmony 
reprint  of  the  original  Sylva,  that  the  paper  and  typography 
are  good,  and  the  plates,  which  are  colored  lithographs,  are 
respectable.  Meanwhile  the  interest  of  the  subject,  and  the 
well-known  scientific  character  of  the  author,  will  commend 
the  work  to  general  attention  and  patronage. 

The  plan  and  object  of  the  late  Mr.  Loudon's  greatest 
work,  "  The  Arboretum  et  Fruticetum  Britannicum,"  is  fully 
set  forth  in  the  copious  title-page.  All  its  promises  are  more 
than  redeemed  in  the  execution  of  the  work,  which  is  truly  a 
fine  monument  of  industry  and  careful  research.  We  have 
particular  reasons,  which  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  for  com- 
mending this  work  to  the  notice  of  any  readers  interested  in 
these  subjects,  who  do  not  alread}^  possess  it.  By  purchasing 
a  copy  of  it,  or  of  the  valuable  abridgment,  the  "  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Trees  and  Shrubs,"  a  work  of  moderate  price,  they 
will  render  important  aid  to  the  embarrassed  family  of  the 
author.  To  give  some  idea  of  the  astonishing  industry  of  the 
late  Mr.  Loudon  in  the  preparation  of  scientific  books,  we  ex- 
tract the  following  account  from  the  "  Gardeners'  Magazine," 
an  excellent  periodical,  the  publication  of  which,  after  it  had 
continued  for  a  period  of  eighteen  years,  terminated  at  the 
death  of  its  indefatigable  editor. 

"  Mr.  Loudon  was  brought  up  as  a  landscape-gardener,  and 
began  to  practise  in  1808,  when  he  came  to  England  with 
numerous  letters  of  introduction  to  some  of  the  first  landed 
proprietors  in  the  kingdom.  He  afterwards  took  a  large  farm 
in  Oxfordshire,  where  he  resided  in  1809.  In  the  years  1813, 
1814,  1815,  he  made  the  tour  of  northern  Europe,  traversing 
Sweden,  Russia,  Poland,  and  Austria ;  in  1819,  he  traveled 
through  Italy,  and  in  1828,  through  France  and  Germany. 
Mr.  Loudon's  career  as  an  author  began  in  1803,  when  he 
was  only  twenty  years  old  ;  and  it  continued,  with  very  little 
interruption,  during  the  space  of  forty  years,  being  only  con- 
cluded by  his  death.  The  first  works  he  published  were  the 
following :  '  Observations  on  laying  out  Public  Squares,' 
in  1803,  and  on  '  Plantations,'  in  1804 ;  a  i  Treatise  on  Hot- 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES. 


houses,'  in  1805,  and  on  8  Country  Residences,'  in  1806,  both 
4to ;  8  Hints    on    the  Formation    of  Gardens,'   in  1812  ;  and 
three  works  on  '  Hothouses,'  in  1817  and  1818.     In  1822  ap- 
peared the  first  edition  of  the  4  Encyclopaedia  of  Gardening '  ; 
a  work  remarkable  for  the  immense  mass  of  useful  matter 
which  it  contained,  and  for  the  then  unusual  circumstance  of 
a  great  quantity  of  woodcuts  being  mingled  with  the  text : 
this  book  obtained  an  extraordinary  sale,  and  fully  established 
his  fame  as  an  author.     Soon  after  was  published  an  anony- 
mous work,  written  either  partly  or  entirely  by  Mr.  Loudon, 
called  the  8  Greenhouse  Companion ' ;  and  shortly  afterwards, 
8  Observations  on  laying  out  Farms,'  in  folio,  with  his  name. 
In  1824,  a  second  edition  of  the  '  Encyclopaedia  of  Garden- 
ing '  was  published,  with  very  great  alterations  and  improve- 
ments ;  and  the  following  year  appeared  the  first  edition  of 
the  8  Encyclopaedia  of  Agriculture.'    In  1826,  the  8  Gardeners' 
Magazine  '  was  commenced,  being  the  first  periodical  ever  de- 
voted exclusively  to  horticultural  subjects.     The  'Magazine 
of  Natural  History,'  also  the  first  of  its  kind,  was  begun  in 

1828.  Mr.  Loudon  was  now  occupied  in  the  preparation  of 
the  8  Encyclopaedia  of  Plants,'  which  was  published  early  in 

1829,  and  was  speedily  followed  by  the  '  Hortus  Britannicus.' 
In  1830,  a  second  and  nearly  rewritten  edition  of  the  8  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Agriculture  '  was  published,  and  this  was  followed 
by  an  entirely  rewritten  edition  of  the  8  Encyclopaedia  of 
Gardening,'  in  1831;  and  the  'Encyclopaedia  of  Cottage, 
Farm,  and  Villa  Architecture,'  the  first  he  published  on  his 
own  account,  in  1832.  This  last  work  was  one  of  the  most 
successful  because  it  was  one  of  the  most  useful  he  ever  wrote, 
and  it  is  likely  long  to  continue  a  standard  book  on  the  sub- 
ject of  which  it  treats.  Mr.  Loudon  now  began  to  prepare 
his  great  and  ruinous  work,  the  8  Arboretum  Britannicum,' 
the  anxieties  attendant  on  which  were,  undoubtedly,  the 
primary  cause  of  that  decay  of  constitution  which  terminated 
in  his  death.  This  work  was  not,  however,  completed  till 
1838,  and  in  the  mean  time  he  began  the  8  Architectural 
Magazine,'  the  first  periodical  devoted  exclusively  to  archi- 
tecture.    The  labor  he  underwent  at  this  time  is  almost  in- 


78  ESS  A  YS. 

credible.  He  had  four  periodicals,  namely,  the  '  Gardeners'/ 
4  Natural  History,'  and  '  Architectural  Magazines,'  and  the 
;  Arboretum  Britannicum,'  which  was  published  in  monthly 
numbers,  going  on  at  the  same  time  ;  and,  to  produce  these 
at  the  proper  times,  he  literally  worked  night  and  day.  Im- 
mediately on  the  conclusion  of  the  '  Arboretum  Britannicum,' 
he  began  the  '  Suburban  Gardener,'  which  was  also  published 
in  1838,  as  was  the  '  Hortus  Lignosus  Londinensis ' ;  and  in 
1839  appeared  his  edition  of  Repton's  '  Landscape  Garden- 
ing.' In  1840  he  accepted  the  editorship  of  the  '  Gardeners' 
Gazette,'  which  he  retained  till  November,  1841  ;  and  in  1842 
he  published  his  '  Encyclopaedia  of  Trees  and  Shrubs.'  In 
the  same  year  he  completed  his  '  Suburban  Horticulturist '  ; 
and  finally,  in  1843,  he  published  his  work  on  '  Cemeteries,' 
the  last  separate  work  he  ever  wrote.  In  this  list,  many 
minor  productions  of  Mr.  Loudon's  pen  have  necessarily  been 
omitted  ;  but  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  contributed  to  the 
4  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,'  and  Brande's  '  Dictionary  of 
Science ' ;  and  that  he  published  numerous  supplements,  from 
time  to  time,  to  his  various  works." 

The  adverse  circumstances  under  which  all  this  labor  was 
performed  make  the  result  appear  still  more  remarkable. 
Early  in  life,  an  attack  of  inflammatory  rheumatism  per- 
manently stiffened  one  of  his  knees  and  contracted  his  left 
arm.  In  1820,  his  right  arm  was  broken  near  the  shoulder, 
and  the  bones  were  never  properly  united.  But  he  still  con- 
tinued to  write  with  his  right  hand  until  1825,  when  the  arm 
was  broken  a  second  time,  and  it  became  necessary  to  am- 
putate it :  after  which,  having  about  this  time  lost  the  use  of 
the  thumb  and  two  fingers  of  the  left  hand,  he  was  obliged 
to  employ  amanuenses.  It  was  under  these  trying  circum- 
stances that  his  great  "  Arboretum "  was  prepared.  The 
work  was  undertaken  against  the  advice  of  his  publishers 
and  friends,  who  foresaw  that  it  would  wholly  absorb  his 
former  earnings.  But  it  was  his  favorite  and  crowning  wqrk, 
and  he  unflinchingly  carried  it  onward  to  completion  ;  though 
the  result  verified  the  predictions  of  his  advisers.  It  cost  ten 
thousand  pounds  sterling  ;  and  the  whole  proceeds  of  the  sale, 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF  TREES.  70 

as  well  as  the  copyrights  of  his  other  works,  were  pledged  to 
the  publishers  for  payment.  It  is  gratifying  to  learn,  that, 
since  the  writer's  decease,  an  appeal  has  been  made  to  the 
public  in  England,  and  with  great  success,  to  purchase  copies 
of  this  work  and  of  the  other  publications  of  Mr.  Loudon,  so 
that  the  copyright  may  be  redeemed,  and  their  future  pro- 
ceeds applied  to  the  benefit  of  his  surviving  family.  The 
subjects  of  landscape-gardening  and  arboriculture  are  attract- 
ing increased  attention  in  the  United  States,  and  these  valu- 
able treatises  are  not  yet  so  generally  known  as  they  deserve 
to  be  ;  we  have  thought  it  proper,  therefore,  to  make  this 
statement. 

While  systematically  treating  of  the  botanical  character, 
propagation,  management,  and  economical  uses  of  trees,  Mr. 
Loudon  has  interwoven  a  vast  amount  of  curious  matter  re- 
specting their  history,  geography,  and  literature.  Being  him- 
self a  distinguished  landscape-gardener,  he  has  successfully 
treated  of  their  character  and  adaptation  as  component  parts 
of  general  scenery,  of  which  they  form  a  most  important  ele- 
ment ;  for  no  other  constituents  —  no  lifeless  objects  —  pro- 
duce impressions  at  once  so  strong  and  so  widely  varied  as 
trees.  He  has  also  collected  interesting  statistics  respecting 
the  longevity  of  trees  ;  a  subject  upon  which  we  intend  to 
task  the  patience  of  our  readers  to  some  extent. 

The  most  interesting  ideas  connected  with  trees  are  those 
suggested  by  their  stability  and  duration.  They  far  outlast 
all  other  living  things,  and  form  the  familiar  and  appropriate 
symbols  of  long-protracted  existence.  "  As  the  days  of  a  tree 
shall  be  the  days  of  my  people  "  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  striking:  figures  under  which  a  blessing  can  be  conveyed. 
We  are  naturally  led  to  inquire,  whether  there  is  any  abso- 
lute limit  to  their  existence.  If  not  destroyed  by  accident,  — 
that  is,  by  extrinsic  causes,  of  whatever  sort,  —  do  trees 
eventually  perish,  like  ourselves,  from  old  age  ?  It  is  com- 
monly thought,  no  doubt,  that  trees  are  fully  exposed  to  the 
inevitable  fate  of  all  other  living  things.  The  opposite 
opinion  seems  to  involve  a  paradox,  and  to  be  contradicted 
by  every  one's  observation.     But  popular  opinion  is  an  unsafe 


80  ESS  A  YS. 

guide  ; — the  more  so  in  this  case,  as  our  ordinary  conceptions 
on  the  subject  spring  from  a  false  analogy,  which  we  have 
unconsciously  established,  between  plants  and  animals.  This 
common  analogy  might,  perhaps,  hold  good,  if  the  tree  were 
actually  formed  like  the  animal,  all  the  parts  of  which  are 
created  at  once  in  their  rudimentary  state,  and  soon  attain 
their  fullest  development,  so  that  the  functions  are  carried  on, 
throughout  life,  in  the  same  set  of  organs.  If  this  were  the 
case  with  the  tree,  it  would  likewise  die,  sooner  or  later,  of 
old  age,  —  would  perish  from  causes  strictly  analogous  to 
those  which  fix  a  natural  limit  to  the  life  of  animals.  The 
unavoidable  induration  and  incrustation  of  its  cells  and  ves- 
sels, apart  from  other  causes,  would  put  an  early  and  sure 
limit  to  the  life  of  the  tree,  just  as  it  does  in  fact  terminate 
the  existence  of  the  leaf,  the  proper  emblem  of  mortality,  — 
which,  although  it  generally  lives  only  a  single  season,  may 
yet  truly  be  said  to  die  of  old  age.  But,  as  the  leaves  are 
necessarily  renewed  every  year,  so  also  are  the  other  essential 
organs  of  the  plant.  The  tree  is  gradually  developed  by  the 
successive  addition  of  new  parts.  It  annually  renews  not 
only  its  buds  and  leaves,  but  its  wood  and  its  roots  ;  every- 
thing, indeed,  that  is  concerned  in  its  life  and  growth.  Thus, 
like  the  fabled  iEson,  being  restored  from  the  decrepitude  of 
age  to  the  bloom  of  early  youth,  —  the  most  recent  branchlets 
being  placed,  by  means  of  the  latest  layer  of  wood,  in  favor- 
able communication  with  the  newly  formed  roots,  and  these 
extending  at  a  corresponding  rate  into  fresh  soil,  — 
"  Quae  quantum  vertice  ad  auras 
^therias,  tantum  radice  in  Tartara  tendit," 

why  has  not  the  tree  all  the  conditions  of  existence  in  the 
thousandth,  that  it  possessed  in  the  hundredth,  or  the  tenth, 
year  of  its  age?  The  old  and  central  part  of  the  trunk  may, 
indeed,  decay ;  but  this  is  of  little  moment,  so  long  as  new 
layers  are  regularly  formed  at  the  circumference.  The  tree 
survives  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  show  that  it  is  liable  to  death 
from  old  age  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term.  Nor  do  we 
arrive  at  a  different  conclusion  when  we  contemplate  the 
tree  under  a  less  familiar  but  more  philosophical  aspect,  — 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  81 

considering  it,  not  as  a  simple  individual,  like  man  or  the 
higher  animals,  but  as  an  aggregate  of  many  individuals, 
which  though  ordinarily  connected  with  the  parent  stock,  are 
capable  of  growing  by  themselves,  and  indeed  often  do  sepa- 
rate spontaneously,  and  in  a  variety  of  ways  acquire  indepen- 
dent existence.  If,  then,  the  tree  be,  as  it  undeniably  is,  a 
comjilex  being,  an  aggregate  of  as  many  individuals,  united 
in  a  common  trunk,  as  there  are,  or  have  been,  buds  developed 
on  its  surface ;  and  if  the  component  individuals  be  annually 
renewed,  why  should  not  the  aggregate,  the  tree,  last  indefi- 
nitely ?  To  establish  a  proper  analogy,  we  must  not  compare 
the  tree  with  man,  but  with  the  coral  formations,  in  which 
numberless  individuals,  engrafted  and  blended  on  a  common 
base,  though  capable  of  living  when  detached  from  the  mass, 
conspire  to  build  up  those  arborescent  structures  so  puzzling 
to  the  older  naturalists  that  they  were  not  inappropriately 
named  "  zoophytes,"  or  animal-plants.  The  immense  coral- 
groves,  which  have  thus  grown  up  in  tropical  seas,  have,  no 
doubt,  endured  for  ages  ;  the  inner  and  older  parts  consisting 
of  the  untenanted  cells  of  individuals  that  have  long  since 
perished,  while  fresh  structures  are  continually  produced  on 
the  surface.  The  individuals,  indeed,  perish  ;  but  the  aggre- 
gate may  endure  as  long  as  time  itself.  So  with  a  tree,  con- 
sidered under  this  point  of  view.  Though  the  wood  in  the 
centre  of  the  trunk  and  large  branches  —  the  produce  of  buds 
and  leaves  that  have  long  ago  disappeared  —  may  die  and  de- 
cay ;  yet  while  new  individuals  are  formed  upon  the  surface 
with  each  successive  crop  of  fresh  buds,  and  placed  in  as 
favorable  communication  with  the  soil  and  the  air  as  their 
predecessors,  the  aggregate  tree  would  appear  to  have  no 
necessary,  no  inherent,  limit  to  its  existence.1 

1  A  beautiful  confirmation  of  this  view  may  be  drawn  from  the  cele- 
brated Banyan,  or  India  Fig-tree,  and  a  few  other  tropical  trees,  which 
freely  strike  root,  high  in  the  open  air,  from  their  spreading  branches. 
These  aerial  roots,  after  reaching  the  earth,  become  in  time  new  trunks  ; 
and  the  whole  tree  appears  like  a  huge  tent,  supported  by  many  columns. 
Milton's  description  of  the  Banyan  (in  "Paradise  Lost")  is  incorrect, 
so  far  as  it  supposes  the  bending  branches  themselves  to  reach  the 
ground,  and  there  to  strike  root,  just  as  the  gardener  propagates  shrubs 


82  ESS  A  YS. 

No  one  denies,  however,  that  different  species  may  have  an 
habitual  period  of  death  ;  we  only  insist  that  this  is  not  a 
necessary  period.  In  the  course  of  things,  a  multitude  of  dif- 
ferent accidents  conspire  to  fix  a  mean  limit  to  the  life  of  man, 
which,  though  far  below  the  natural  period  of  death  by  old  age, 
yet  occurs  with  such  regularity,  under  given  conditions,  that 
it  is  made  a  matter  of  calculation.  So  a  particular  kind  of 
tree  may  be  liable  to  certain  accidents,  which  habitually  in- 
sure its  destruction  within  a  definite  period.  A  tree  of  rapid 
growth  generally  has  a  soft  and  fragile  wood,  and  is  therefore 
especially  subject  to  decay,  or  to  be  broken  or  overthrown  by 
tempests  :  and  the  chances  of  its  destruction  are  fearfully 
multiplied  with  the  increasing  spread  and  weight  of  the 
branches.  Each  species,  too,  being  somewhat  uniformly  ex- 
posed to  a  particular  class  of  accidents,  according  to  its  con- 
stitution and  mode  of  growth,  may  consequently  exhibit  some- 
thing like  an  average  duration.  But  death  can  no  more  be 
said  to  ensue  from  old  age,  in  such  a  case,  than  in  that  of  the 
ordinary  mortality  of  mankind.  The  whole  tree  does  not 
necessarily  suffer,  like  the  animal,  from  the  death  or  amputa- 
tion of  its  limbs  ;  those  that  remain  may  be  thereby  placed, 
perhaps,  in  a  more  favorable  condition  than  before.  A  tree 
may  certainly  be  conceived  to  survive  all  ordinary  accidents, 
or  to  be  protected  against  them,  and  thus  to  live  indefinitely ; 
while  animals,  even  if  shielded  from  all  external  injury,  must 
at  last  succumb  to  internal  causes  of  destruction,  —  unavoid- 
able, because  inseparable  from  their  organization. 

by  layering  ;  whereas  the  roots  themselves  descend  from  a  great  height. 
When  a  sufficient  number  of  these  collateral  trunks  are  formed  to  sup- 
port the  whole  weight,  the  central,  original  stem  may  decay  and  dis- 
appear, as  it  often  does,  without  affecting  the  existence  of  the  tree  ; 
which  thus  increases  into  a  grove,  "  high  over-arched,  with  echoing  walks 
between,"  that  obviously  may  endure  for  an  indefinite  period.  Many 
such  trees  are  known,  of  immense  magnitude,  and  doubtless  of  most  ex- 
traordinary age.  But  the  vegetable  ph3Tsiologist  well  knows  that  these 
essentially  differ  from  ordinary  trees,  only  in  that  a  portion  of  the  new 
wood,  detached  as  it  were  from  the  branches,  forms  separate  trunks  in- 
stead of  adhering  throughout  to  the  main  trunk  and  contributing  to  its 
increase  in  circumference.  These  collateral  trunks  merely  represent  the 
outer  and  newer  layers  of  ordinary  trees,  while  the  main  stem  represents 
the  old  and  often  decaying  centre. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF    TREES.  83 

The  Talipot  Palm,  which  blossoms  but  once,  and  then  per- 
ishes, —  or  the  Century  plant,  which  continues  in  our  conser- 
vatories even  for  a  hundred  years  without  flowering,  but  dies 
when  it  has  ripened  its  fruit,  —  may  be  adduced  as  cases  of 
death  by  old  age.  But  in  its  native  climes,  where  our  so- 
called  Century-plant  blossoms  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  year  of  its 
age,  it  as  uniformly  dies  immediately  afterwards.  The  result, 
in  all  such  cases,  is  rather  analogous  to  death  from  parturi- 
tion, than  to  death  by  old  age. 

This  doctrine  of  the  indefinite  longevity  of  trees  —  that 
they  die  from  injury  or  disease,  or,  in  one  word,  from  acci- 
dents, but  never  really  from  old  age  —  was  first  propounded 
by  the  distinguished  De  Candolle  in  one  of  his  earliest  writ- 
ings,1 near  the  commencement  of  the  present  century.  It  is 
entirely  a  modern  doctrine  (unless,  indeed,  we  may  suppose 
that  Pliny  comprehended  the  full  meaning  of  his  words, 
"  Vites  sine  fine  crescunt,"  which  is  improbable),  and  it  is  by 
no  means  surprising  that  it  should  have  been  received  with 
incredulity,  or  vehemently  controverted,  by  those  who  had 
not  taken  the  pains  to  understand  it.  For  the  a  priori  con- 
siderations, from  which  the  young  Genevan  botanist  deduced 
his  novel  theory,  were  then,  in  truth,  more  or  less  hypotheti- 
cal, and  involved  some  hardy  assumptions.  They  are  now, 
however,  amply  confirmed,  or  at  least  so  generally  admitted 
by  all  vegetable  physiologists,  as  to  give  the  theory  a  high 
degree  of  antecedent  probability.  But  De  Candolle  proceeded 
to  indicate  a  mode  in  which  its  correctness  might  almost  be 
tested  by  actual  observation,  and,  having  accumulated  a  great 
number  of  interesting  data,  he  published,  in  1831,  the  memoir  2 
which,  having  been  still  further  augmented,  now  constitutes 
one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  his  masterly  "  Physio- 
logic Vegetale." 

If  this  view  be  well  founded,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  dif- 
ferent individuals  of  the  same  species  should  perish  at  very  ir- 
regular periods ;  and  that  some  should  be  found  to  escape  all 

1  "  Flore  Francaise,"  1,  p.  223. 

2  "  Notice  sur  la  Longevite  des  Arbres."  Par  Aug.  Pyr.  De  Candolle,  in 
the  Bibliotheque  Universelle,  May,  1831. 


84  ESS  A  YS. 

the  ordinary  accidents  that  trees  are  heir  to,  and  thus  attain  a 
longevity  far  transcending  the  habitual  duration  of  the  spe- 
cies.    Is  this  view  sustained  by  observation  ? 

Before  adducing  the  evidence  which  bears  upon  this  ques- 
tion, it  is  necessary  to  inquire  how  the  actual  age  of  a  tree 
may  be  ascertained.  In  most  cases,  —  in  all  those  trees  which 
increase  in  diameter  by  annual  concentric  layers,  —  that  is  to 
say  in  nearly  all  trees  except  Palms  and  their  allies,  which  for 
the  present  we  may  leave  out  of  the  question,  the  age  may  be 
directly  ascertained  by  counting  the  annual  rings  on  a  cross 
section  of  the  trunk.  The  record  is  sometimes  illegible  or 
nearly  so,  but  it  is  perfectly  authentic  ;  and  when  fairly  de- 
ciphered, we  may  rely  on  its  correctness.1  But  the  venerable 
trunks,  whose  ages  we  are  most  interested  in  determining,  are 
rarely  sound  to  the  centre  ;  and  if  they  were,  even  the  para- 
mount interests  of  science  would  seldom  excuse  the  arboricide. 
This  decisive  test,  therefore,  can  seldom  be  practically  em- 
ployed, except  in  the  case  of  comparatively  young  trees.  The 
most  remarkable  recorded  instance  of  its  application  is  that 
of  one  of  the  old  oaks  at  Bordza,  in  Samogitia  (Russian  Po- 
land) ;  which,  having  been  greatly  injured  by  a  conflagration, 
was  felled  in  the  year  1812,  and  seven  hundred  and  ten 
concentric  layers  were  distinctly  counted  on  the  transverse 

1  The  discovery,  or  at  least  the  first  explicit  announcement  of  the  now 
familiar  fact,  that  ordinary  trees  grow  by  annual  layers,  so  that  the  rec- 
ord of  their  age  is  inscribed  upon  the  section  of  the  trunk,  is  generally 
attributed  to  Malpighi.  But,  probably,  we  should  understand  this  cele- 
brated anatomist  as  merely  giving  a  formal  statement  of  what  was  already 
popularly  known  ;  for  so  obvious  a  fact  could  scarcely  have  escaped  no- 
tice. Professor  Adrien  de  Jussieu,  the  present  representative  of  that  il- 
lustrious family,  has,  moreover,  lately  reproduced  a  passage  in  the  "  Voy- 
age de  Montaigne  en  Italie,"  written  in  the  year  1581,  nearly  fifty 
years  before  Malpighi  was  born,  which  proves  this  to  have  been  the  case. 
"  L'ouvrier,  homme  ingenieux  et  fameux  a  /aire  de  beaux  instruments  de 
Mathematique,  m'enseinga  que  tous  les  arbres  portent  autant  de  cercles  qu'ils 
ont  dure'  d'annees,  et  me  le  Jit  voir  dans  tous  ceux  qu'il  avoit  dans  sa  boutique, 
travaillant  en  bois.  Et  la  partie  qui  regard  le  septentrion  est  plus  e'troite, 
et  a  les  cercles  plus  serves  et  plus  denses   que  V  autre." 

And  now  it  appears  that  Leonardo  da  Vinci  knew,  and  mentioned  it  — 
as  well  as  phyllotaxis.     (MSS.  note  in  Dr.  Gray's  handwriting.) 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  85 

section,  from  the  circumference  towards  the  centre,  where  the 
space  in  which  the  layers  could  not  be  clearly  made  out  was 
estimated  to  have  comprised  three  hundred  more.  If  the  in- 
jured portion  was  not  overestimated,  the  tree  must  have  been 
a  thousand  years  old.  We  have  now  before  us  a  section  of  a 
fine  trunk  of  the  American  Cypress  (Taxodium  distichum'), 
upon  the  radius  of  which,  twenty-seven  inches  in  length,  six 
hundred  and  seventy  annual  layers  may  be  distinctly  counted. 
The  wood  of  this  tree  is  so  durable,  that  probably  the  age  of 
trunks  of  more  than  twice  that  size  might  be  ascertained  by 
direct  inspection. 

When  such  a  section  cannot  be  obtained,  we  are  obliged  to 
resort  to  other  and  less  direct  evidence,  affording  only  ap- 
proximate, or  more  or  less  probable,  conclusions.  Sometimes 
lateral  incisions,  not  endangering  the  life  of  the  tree,  furnish 
the  means  of  inspecting  and  measuring  a  considerable  number 
of  the  outer  layers,  and  of  computing  the  age  of  the  trunk  from 
its  diameter  and  actual  rate  of  growth.  But  as  young  trees 
grow  much  more  rapidly  than  old  ones,  we  should  greatly  ex- 
aggerate the  age  of  a  large  trunk,  if  we  deduced  its  rate  of 
growth  from  the  outer  layers  alone.  We  must  therefore 
ascertain,  by  repeated  observations,  the  average  thickness  of 
the  layers  of  young  trees  of  the  same  species ;  and  by  the 
judicious  combination  of  both  these  data,  a  highly  probable 
estimate  may  often  be  formed. 

When  unable  to  inspect  any  portion  of  the  annual  layers  of 
remarkable  old  trees,  we  may  occasionally  obtain  other  indi- 
cations upon  which  some  reliance  may  be  placed  ;  such  as  the 
amount  of  increase  in  circumference  between  stated  intervals ; 
but  as,  on  the  one  hand,  we  can  never  depend  upon  the  entire 
accuracy  of  two  measurements  made  at  widely  distant  periods, 
while,  on  the  other,  the  growth  of  a  small  number  of  years, 
however  carefully  ascertained,  would  be  an  unsafe  criterion, 
this  method  can  seldom  be  employed  with  much  confidence. 
A  more  common  mode  is  to  employ  the  average  rate  of  growth 
of  the  oldest  trees  of  which  complete  sections  have  been  ex- 
amined, for  the  approximate  determination  of  the  age  of  re- 
markably large  trunks  of  the  same  species,  where  the  size 


86  ESS  A  YS. 

alone  is  known.  For  often  repeated  observation  proves  that 
the  increase  is  greatest,  in  other  words,  the  layers  are  thick- 
est, in  young  trees  ;  but  that  afterwards  —  after  the  first 
century,  for  instance — the  tree  increases  in  diameter  at  a 
much  slower  but  somewhat  uniform,  or  else  still  decreasing 
rate,  which  does  not  greatly  vary  in  different  trees  of  the 
same  species.  Such  estimates  would,  therefore,  always  tend 
to  underrate,  rather  than  to  exaggerate,  the  age  of  a  large 
tree.  But  it  is  unsafe  to  apply  this  method  to  other  than 
really  venerable  trunks  ;  for  the  growth  of  a  tree  is  liable  to 
great  variations  during  the  first  century  or  two  ;  either  from 
year  to  year,  or  between  different  individuals  of  the  same  spe- 
cies. The  injury  of  a  single  leading  root  or  branch,  or  the 
influence  of  a  stratum  of  sterile  soil,  may  affect  the  whole 
growth  of  a  young  tree  for  a  series  of  years  ;  while,  in  an 
older  individual,  the  wide  distribution  of  the  roots  and  multi- 
plication of  the  branches  render  the  effect  of  local  injuries 
nearly  inappreciable,  and  the  influence  of  any  one  or  more 
unfavorable  seasons  is  lost  in  the  average  of  a  great  number. 
Thus  the  fine  Elm  in  Cambridge,  wrhich  during  the  last  win- 
ter fell  a  victim  to  one  of  the  most  fatal  and  frequent  acci- 
dents which  in  this  country  interfere  with  the  longevity  of 
trees,  —  having  been  cut  down  to  make  room  for  a  petty 
building,  just  as  it  had  reached  its  hundredth  anniversary,  — 
was  fourteen  feet  in  circumference  at  the  height  of  three  or 
four  feet  from  the  ground.1  The  girth  of  its  more  renowned 
and  fortunate  neighbor,  the  "  Washington  Elm,"  is  but  little 
over  thirteen  feet ;  and  it  might  accordingly  be  inferred  that 
it  is  some  years  the  junior  of  the  "  Palmer  Elm."  But  we 
learn  from  a  very  authentic  source,  that  the  celebrated  Whit- 
field, when  excluded  from  the  pulpits  of  the  town  and  college, 
preached  under  the  shade  of  this  tree  in  the  summer  of  1744, 
—  just  a  century  ago.     It  is,  doubtless,  at  least  one  hundred 

1  This  "  Palmer  Elm,"  as  it  was  called,  grew  with  more  than  ordinary 
rapidity  for  the  first  seventy  years  ;  when,  to  casual  observation,  it  must 
have  appeared  nearly  as  large  as  when  it  was  felled.  For,  during  the 
last  twenty-two  years,  it  had  increased  only  five  and  one-half  inches  in 
diameter,  that  is,  at  the  rate  of  a  quarter  of  an  inch  per  annum. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF  TREES.  87 

and  twenty  or  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  old.      We  wish 
to  place  its  size  upon  record  for  the   use  of  future  genera- 
tions ;  and  we  therefore  take  this  opportunity  to  state,  that 
the  trunk  of  the   "  Washington   Elm,"  at    Cambridge,   now 
measures  thirteen  feet  and  two  and  a  half  inches  in  circum- 
ference, at  the  height  of  three  feet  from  the  ground  ;   this 
beino*  the  point  at  which  the  girth  is  smallest,  being  unaf- 
fected either  by  the  expansion  of  the  roots  below,  or  of  the 
branches  above,  and  therefore  the  proper  place  to  measure  it 
for  this  purpose.    That  this  size  is  conformable  to  the  age  as- 
signed is  apparent  from  a  comparison  with  other  trees  ;  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  "  Aspinwall  Elm,  in  Brookline,  standing 
near  the  ancient  house  belonging  to  the  family  of  that  name, 
and  which  was  known  to  be  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  years 
old  in  1837,  when  it  measured  sixteen  feet  eight  inches  at  five 
feet  from  the  ground,  and  twenty-six  feet  five  inches  close  by 
the  surface."  1     The  noted  Elm  upon  Boston  Common  should 
be  about  the  same  age.     Its  present  girth,  at  five  feet  from 
the  ground,  is  sixteen  feet  and  one  inch ;  at  the  height  of 
three  feet  it  measures  seventeen  feet  eleven  inches  ;  near  the 
earth,  twenty-three  feet  and  six  inches.     We  have  seen  a  map 
of  Boston,  published  in  the  year  1720,  upon  which  this  Elm 
is  delineated  as  a  large  tree.     Its  age,  therefore,  is  certainly 
as  great  as  that  assigned  to  it  in  the  subjoined  account,  which 
recently  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of  the  day ;  —  we  know 
not  upon  what  authority.2 

i  We  quote  the  manuscript  of  an  esteemed  friend,  who  has  devoted 
much  attention  to  the  history  and  growth  of  trees,  and  whose  long  ex- 
pected volume,  on  the  trees  of  New  England,  we  hope  will  soon  be  given 
to  the  public. 

2  As  such  data  may  hereafter  possess  some  interest,  we  may  simply 
state,  that  the  large  "English  Elm,"  one  of  the  finest  trees  on  Boston 
Common,  is  now  eleven  feet  two  inches  in  girth,  at  five  feet  from  the 
ground  ;  and  twelve  feet  three  inches,  at  the  height  of  three  feet.  The 
American  Elm,  near  the  Botanic  Garden  at  Cambridge,  in  front  of  the 
house  of  Judge  Phillips,  has  a  girth  of  thirteen  feet,  at  six  feet  from  the 
earth,  and  of  fifteen  feet,  three  feet  lower  down.  Its  neighbor,  opposite 
the  gardener's  residence,  is  fourteen  feet  three  inches  in  circumference, 
at  six  feet  from  the  ground.  (MSS.  note  in  Dr.  Gray's  handwriting. 
1874,  Phillip's  14-9f,  Sander's  15-7f ) 


88  ESS  A  YS. 

"  The  '  Boston  Traveller '  states  that  this  noble  tree  was  set 
out  about  the  year  1670,  by  Captain  Daniel  Henchman,  and  is 
therefore  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  old.  Captain 
Henchman  was  a  schoolmaster  in  Boston  from  1666  to  1671. 
He  joined  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  in 
1675.  He  was  a  distinguished  captain,  in  King  Philip's 
war,  of  a  company  of  infantry.  Forty -five  years  ago,  the 
Great  Elm  had  a  large  hollow  in  it,  and  was  rapidly  decay- 
ing, but  was  treated  in  a  mode  recommended  by  Forsyth,  by 
clearing  the  cavity  of  rotten  wood,  and  filling  it  with  a  compo- 
sition composed  principally  of  lime,  rubbish  from  old  build- 
ings, and  clay,  and  thus  restored.  It  is  now  apparently  as 
flourishing  as  ever,  and  without  any  appearance  of  the  hol- 
low, which  was  once  large  enough  for  a  boy  to  hide  himself 
in.  The  tree  is  a  native  Elm,  which  is  the  most  hardy  kind. 
Many  of  the  old  Elm-trees  are  what  are  called  English  Elms, 
with  less  extended  roots  and  branches  than  the  American." 

But  more  commonly,  perhaps,  our  estimates  rest,  either 
wholly  or  in  part,  upon  historical  evidence  or  tradition  ;  and 
the  most  numerous  and  best  authenticated  cases  of  this  kind 
may  be  expected  to  occur  in  Europe,  where  many  trees,  es- 
pecially Chestnuts,  Lindens,  Oaks,  and  Yews,  may  be  satis- 
factorily traced  by  records  through  several  centuries. 

Having  thus  briefly  indicated  the  kinds  or  sources  of  evi- 
dence which  are  brought  to  bear  with  more  or  less  directness 
and  force  upon  this  interesting  question,  we  proceed  to  offer 
a  condensed  account  of  some  of  the  more  remarkable  or  cu- 
rious cases  of  longevity  in  trees  ;  which  may  show  to  what 
extent,  and  with  what  results,  this  various  testimony  has  been 
actually  applied.  The  evidence  is  cumulative.  Individual 
cases  would  be  little  worth,  if  unsupported  by  others.  But 
mutually  strengthening  each  other,  the  obvious  conclusion  be- 
comes almost  irresistible,  even  when  the  testimony  in  particu- 
lar cases  is  very  imperfect. 

We  leave  entirely  out  of  view  the  numerous  allusions  to  old 
trees  that  may  be  gathered  from  classical  writers.  Nor  are 
the  more  circumstantial  accounts  by  Pausanias,  Josephus,  or 
the  Elder  Pliny,  available  for  our  present  purpose.     The  two 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  89 

latter,  indeed,  speak  of  trees  as  old  as  the  creation  ; 1  but  they 
have  unfortunately  neglected  to  mention  the  evidence  upon 
which  their  opinions  were  founded.  Restricting  ourselves, 
therefore,  to  trees  which  still  survive,  or  which  have  existed 
within  recent  times,  we  commence  our  enumeration  with  one 
which  is  rather  remarkable  for  its  historical  associations  than 
for  any  extraordinary  longevity  ;  namely,  the  celebrated  Syc- 
amore Maple  (Acer  Pseudo-Platanus),  which  stands  near 
the  entrance  of  the  village  of  Trons,  in  the  Grisons,  the  cra- 
dle of  liberty  among  the  Rhetian  Alps.  Under  the  once 
spreading  branches  of  this  now  hollow  and  cloven  trunk,  the 
Gray  League  —  so  called,  either  from  the  gray  beards,  or  the 
home-spun  clothing,  of  the  peasants  who  there  met  the  nobles 
favorable  to  their  cause  —  was  solemnly  ratified  in  March, 
1424.  Upon  the  supposition  that  it  was  only  a  century  old 
when  the  meeting,  to  which  its  celebrity  is  owing,  took  place, 
—  and  a  younger  tree  would  hardly  have  been  selected  for  the 
purpose,  —  it  has  now  attained  the  age  of  five  hundred  and 
twenty  years.  It  can  scarcely  be  younger,  it  may  be  much 
older  than  this.  In  some  of  the  earlier  accounts,  this  tree  is 
said  to  be  a  Linden.  Indeed,  it  is  so  called  in  the  inscription 
upon  the  walls  of  the  adjacent  little  chapel.  They  were  bet- 
ter patriots  than  botanists  in  those  days  ;  for  the  investiga- 
tions of  Colonel  Bontemps  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  identity 
of  the  tree.2 

The  Linden  itself,  however,  is  associated  with  some  inter- 
esting points  of  Swiss  history  ;  it  also  affords  some  instances 
of  remarkable  longevity,  which  the  lightness  and  softness  of 
its  wood  would  by  no  means  lead  us  to  expect.  The  Linden 
in  the  town  of  Freiburg,  which  was  planted  in  1476,  to  com- 
memorate the  bloody  battle  of  Morat,  though  now  beginning 
to  decay,  has  already  proved  a  more  durable  memorial  than 
the  famous  ossuary  on  the  battlefield, 

1  Josephus  relates,  that  he  saw  near  Hebron  a  Terebinthus  which  had 
existed  ever  since  the  creation  (Lib.  V.,  c.  31)  ;  and  Pliny  speaks  of 
Oaks  in  the  Hercynian  forest,  which  he  deems  coeval  with  the  world. 
(Hist.  Nat.,  Lib.  xvi.,  c.  2.) 

2  "  Bibliotheqne  Univ.  de  GeneVe,"  Aout,  1831. 


90  ESS  A  YS. 

"  Where  Burgundy  bequeathed  his  tombless  host, 
A  bony  heap,  through  ages  to  remain 
Themselves  their  monument  ;  "  — 

and  may  even  outlast  the  obelisk  recently  erected  upon  its 
site.  The  age  of  this  tree  and  the  girth  of  its  trunk  being 
well  known,  —  having  attained  the  circumference  of  fourteen 
English  feet  in  364  years,  —  it  has  been  employed  as  a  stand- 
ard of  comparison,  in  computing  the  age  of  larger  and  more 
venerable  trunks  of  the  same  species. 

Such  a  tree  is  still  standing  at  the  village  of  Villars-en- 
Moing,  near  the  town  of  Morat,  in  full  health  and  vigor, 
although  portions  of  the  bark  are  known  to  have  been  stripped 
off  about  the  time  of  the  battle  in  1476,  when  it  was  already 
a  noted  tree.  At  four  feet  above  the  ground,  the  trunk  has 
a  circumference  of  thirty-eight  English  feet,  and  consequently 
a  diameter  of  about  twelve  feet.  Supposing  it  to  have  grown, 
on  the  whole,  even  a  little  more  rapidly  than  the  Freiburg- 
Linden,  which  may  be  deemed  a  safe  estimate,  when  we 
recollect  that  old  trees  grow  much  more  slowly  than  younger 
ones,  —  supposing  it  to  have  increased  in  diameter  at  the  aver- 
age rate  of  one  sixth  of  an  inch  in  a  year,  it  must  have  been 
864  years  old  at  the  time  the  measurement  was  made,  in  the 
year  1831.  It  is  not  probable  that  this  estimate  materially 
exaggerates  the  age  of  the  tree,  even  supposing  the  Linden  at 
Freiburg  to  have  grown  at  less  than  the  average  rate  for  the 
species.  It  is  nearly  corroborated,  indeed,  by  the  more  cele- 
brated Linden  of  Neustadt  on  the  Kocher,  in  Wiirtemberg, 
whose  age  rests  wholly  upon  historic  evidence.  The  readers 
of  Evelyn  will  surely  remember  his  interesting  account  of  this 
tree ;  and  in  recent  times,  some  further  particulars  in  its  his- 
tory have  been  rescued  from  oblivion  by  M.  Jules  Trembley, 
who  visited  it  in  1831,  at  the  instance  of  the  illustrious  De 
Candolle.  It  must  have  been  already  remarkable  early  in  the 
thirteenth  century  ;  for,  as  is  proved  by  documents  still  extant 
in  the  registers  of  the  town,  the  village  of  Helmbundt,  having 
been  destroyed  in  the  year  1226,  was  rebuilt  three  years  after- 
wards, at  some  distance  from  its  former  site,  in  the  vicinity 
of  this  tree,  and  took  the  name  of  "  Neustadt  an  der  grossen 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  91 

Linden."  An  old  poem,  which  bears  the  date  of  1408,  informs 
us,  that  "  before  the  gate  rises  a  Linden,  whose  branches  are 
sustained  by  sixty-seven  columns."  The  number  of  these 
columns,  or  pillars  of  stone,  raised  to  support  the  heavy  and 
widely  spreading  branches,  one  of  which  extends  horizontally 
for  more  than  a  hundred  feet,  had  increased  to  eighty-two 
when  the  tree  was  visited  by  Evelyn,  and  to  one  hundred  and 
six  when  it  was  examined  by  Trembley.  To  these  supports, 
doubtless,  its  preservation  is  chiefly  owing;  as  the  tender 
wood  of  the  Linden  could  never  sustain  the  enormous  weight 
of  the  limbs,  or  resist  the  force  of  the  winds.  These  pillars 
are  nearly  covered  with  inscriptions  ;  of  which  the  most  ancient 
that  was  extant  in  Evelyn's  time  bore  the  date  of  1551 ;  but 
the  oldest  now  legible  bears  the  arms  of  Christopher,  Duke  of 
Wiirtemberg,  with  the  date  of  1558.  At  five  or  six  feet  from 
the  ground,  the  trunk  is  thirty-five  and  a  half  English  feet  in 
circumference.  If,  therefore,  it  has  grown  at  the  actual  rate 
of  the  Freiburg  Linden,  it  must  nearly  have  reached  its  thou- 
sandth anniversary.  Or  if,  as  in  the  case  of  the  tree  near 
Morat,  we  allow  a  sixth  of  an  inch  per  annum  for  the  average 
increase  in  diameter,  its  computed  age  would  be  a  little  over 
800  years ;  surely,  a  moderate  estimate  for  a  tree  which  was 
called  the  Great  Linden  more  than  six  centuries  ago. 

No  tree  of  temperate  climates  so  frequently  attains  an  ex- 
traordinary size  as  the  Plane,  or  Sycamore  (Platanus)  ;  trunks 
of  forty  or  fifty  feet  in  circumference  being  by  no  means  un- 
common in  this  country.  The  Oriental  Plane  offers  many 
equally  striking  instances  in  the  south  of  Europe,  particularly 
in  the  Levant.  The  celebrated  tree  on  the  island  of  Cos,  so 
conspicuously  seen  from  the  channel  on  the  Asiatic  side,  has 
recently  been  beautifully  figured  in  Allen's  "  Pictorial  Tour 
in  the  Mediterranean." 

But  old  trunks,  both  of  Oriental  and  our  own  very  similar 
species,  are  always  hollow,  —  mere  shells ;  hence,  in  the  absence 
of  historical  data,  their  age  is  only  to  be  computed  by  their 
rate  of  growth  ;  which  is  so  rapid  for  the  first  century  or  two, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  wood  is  so  liable  to  decay,  that  the 
Plane-tree  is  not  likely  to   afford  any  instances  of  extreme 


92  ESS  A  YS. 

longevity.  A  different  conclusion  might,  indeed,  be  drawn 
from  the  account  of  an  enormous  Plane  in  the  valley  of  Bou- 
youdereh,  near  Constantinople,  described  by  Olivier,  Dr. 
Walsh,  and  others  ;  the  trunk  of  which  is  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  in  girth,  with  a  central  hollow  of  eighty  feet  in  cir- 
cumference. But  the  recent  observations  of  an  excellent 
scientific  observer,  Mr.  Webb,  leave  no  doubt  that  this  mon- 
ster-trunk is  formed  by  the  junction  of  several  original  trees, 
planted  in  close  proximity.1  Along  the  shores  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  there  are  many  groups  of  younger  Planes,  which,  for 
their  shade,  have  been  designedly  planted  in  a  narrow  circle, 
and  their  trunks  will  in  time  become  similarly  incorporated. 
Pliny's  Lycian  Plane,  with  a  cavity  of  eighty-one  feet  in  cir- 
cumference, in  which  the  consul  Licinius  Mutianus  used  to 
lodge  with  a  suite  of  eighteen  persons,  may  have  had  such  an 
origin. 

We  next  notice  the  Chestnuts,  for  the  purpose  of  disposing 
of  an  analogous  case  of  pseudo-longevity ;  that  of  the  famous 
"  Castagno  di  cento  cavalli "  ;  so  named  from  the  somewhat 
apocryphal  tradition,  that  Jeanne  of  Aragon,  and  a  hundred 
cavaliers  of  her  suite,  took  refuge  under  its  branches  during 
a  heavy  shower,  and  were  completely  sheltered  from  the  rain. 
According  to  Brydone,  who  visited  it  in  the  year  1770,  the 
trunk,  or  rather  trunks,  —  for  it  then  had  the  appearance  of 
five  distinct  trees,  —  measured  two  hundred  and  four  feet  in 
circumference ;  but  later  and  more  trustworthy  observers 
reduce  these  dimensions  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  or  one 
hundred  and  ninety  feet.  A  hut  has  been  erected  in  the 
hollow  space,  with  an  oven,  in  which  the  inhabitants  dry  the 
chestnuts  and  other  fruits  which  they  wish  to  preserve  for 
winter,  using  at  times,  for  fuel,  pieces  cut  with  a  hatchet  from 
the  interior  of  the  tree.     The  separation  of  a  large  hollow 

1  Moquin-Tandon,  "  Teratologic  Ve'ge'tale,"  p.  290.  —  By  the  way,  al- 
though De  Candolle  was  not  at  the  tirn^  apprised  of  the  real  nature  of 
this  Plane,  yet  he  was  far  too  cautious  a  reasoner  to  estimate  its  age  at 
2000  years,  as  Mr.  Nuttall  has  inadvertently  stated  (Sylva,  i.  p.  50). 
Whoever  will  read  the  whole  paragraph  in  the  "  Physiologie  Ve'ge'tale," 
ii.  p   994,  will  perceive  that  it  will  by  no  means  bear  that  construction. 


THE  LONGEVITY   OF   TREES.  93 

trunk  into  independent  portions,  appearing  like  the  remains 
of  as  many  distinct  trees,  is  not  in  itself  improbable.  The 
ancient  Yew  in  Fortingal  churchyard,  Scotland,  presents 
a  striking  instance  of  the  kind.  Indeed,  Brydone's  guide 
assured  him  "  that,  by  the  universal  tradition  and  even  testi- 
mony of  the  country,  all  these  were  once  united  in  one  stem ; 
that  their  grandfathers  remembered  this,  when  it  was  looked 
upon  as  the  glory  of  the  forest,  and  visited  from  all  quarters ; 
though,  for  many  years  past,  it  had  been  reduced  to  the  ruin 
we  beheld.  We  began  to  examine  it  with  more  attention, 
and  found  that  there  is  an  appearance  that  these  five  trees 
were  once  really  united  in  one.  The  opening  in  the  middle 
is  at  present  prodigious,  and  it  does  indeed  require  faith  to 
believe  that  so  vast  a  space  was  once  occupied  by  solid  tim- 
ber. But  there  is  no  appearance  of  bark  on  the  inside  of 
any  of  the  stumps,  nor  on  the  sides  that  are  opposite  to  one 
another.  ...  I  have  since  been  told  by  the  Canon  Ricupero, 
an  ingenious  ecclesiastic  of  this  place,  that  he  was  at  the  ex- 
pense of  carrying  up  peasants  with  tools  to  dig  round  the 
4  Castagno  di  cento  cavalli ' ;  and  he  assures  me,  upon  his 
honor,  that  he  found  all  these  stems  united  below  ground  into 
one  root."  l 

It  appears,  however,  that  Brydone  has  not  fairly  represented 
the  worthy  Canon  Ricupero's  opinion  ;  for  he  thought  it  prob- 
able that  these  present  trunks  were  offshoots  from  the  per- 
sistent base  of  a  more  ancient  stem  ;  a  conclusion  which  is 
fully  sustained  by  the  observations  of  several  competent  nat- 
uralists, such  as  Duby,2  Brunner,3  and  Philippi.4  Every  one 
knows  how  readily  the  Chestnut  will  throw  up  shoots  from 
the  root ;  and  Philippi  says  it  is  a  general  custom  in  Sicily 
to  cut  them  down  after  they  have  attained  a  considerable 
size,  when  the  new  stems  that  are  thrown  out  from  the  base 
shortly  become  trees  again.     Other  considerations  would  pre- 

1  "  Tour  through  Sicily  and  Malta." 

2  De  Candolle,  "  Phys.  Veg.,"  ii.  p.  992. 

8  "  Excursion  through  the  East  of  Liguria,  Sicily,  and  Malta." 
4  "  Ueber  die  Vegetation  am  ^Etna  "  ;  in  "Linnrea,"vii.  p.   727  ;  and  in 
"Comp.  to  Bot.  Mag.,"  i.  p.  90. 


94  ESS  A  YS. 

vent  our  assigning  the  highest  antiquity  to  a  tree  not  origi- 
nally indigenous  to  Sicily,  but  doubtless  introduced  from  the 
East. 

There  are,  however,  some  colossal  Chestnuts  upon  Mount 
Etna,  with  undoubtedly  single  trunks ;  three  of  which,  re- 
cently measured,  are  found  to  have  a  circumference  respec- 
tively of  fifty-seven,  sixty-four,  and  seventy  feet.  Some  gen- 
eral idea  of  their  age  may  perhaps  be  formed  by  a  comparison 
with  other  individuals,  whose  history  is  better  known,  such  as 
that  at  Sancerre,  described  by  Bosc,  which,  although  only 
thirty-three  feet  in  girth  at  six  feet  from  the  ground,  has  been 
called  the  "  Great  Chestnut  of  Sancerre "  for  six  hundred 
years  ;  or  the  celebrated  "  Tortworth  Chestnut,"  which  Strutt, 
who  in  his  "  Sylva  Britannica  "  has  given  a  fine  illustration 
of  its  massive  bole,  considers  as  probably  the  largest  as  well 
as  the  oldest  tree  standing  in  England,  and  which  in  the 
reign  of  Stephen,  who  ascended  the  throne  in  1135,  was 
already  remarkable  for  its  size,  and  well  known  as  a  signal 
boundary  to  the  manor  of  Tarn  worth,  now  Tortworth,  in 
Gloucestershire.  But  even  this  tree,  although  it  has  probably 
long  since  celebrated  its  thousandth  anniversary,  does  not 
equal  the  smallest  of  the  three  Sicilian  Chestnuts,  being  only 
fifty-two  feet  in  circumference  at  five  feet  from  the  ground. 

In  the  ascending  scale  of  longevity,  we  pass  from  the  Chest- 
nut to  the  Oak,  the  emblem  of  embodied  strength,  one  of  the 
longest-lived,  as  it  is  the  slowest-growing,  of  deciduous-leaved 
forest  trees.  The  light  and  soft  wood  of  the  Linden,  and 
even  of  the  Chestnut,  seems  incompatible  with  great  longevity. 
Such  trees  of  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  old  are 
extraordinary  phenomena,  owing  their  prolonged  existence  to 
a  rare  conjunction  of  favorable  circumstances,  —  the  more 
important,  as  they  are  unexjiected  witnesses  to  the  truth  of 
our  leading  proposition.  But  this  is  no  very  uncommon  age 
for  that 

"  Lord  of  the  woods,  the  long-surviving  Oak." 

The  briefest  biographical  notice  of  Oaks  remarkable  for 
their  age  or  size,  or  for  historic  memorials  attesting  their 
antiquity,  would  alone  fill  our  pages.     We  can  only  refer  the 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  95 

curious  reader  to  the  pages  of  Evelyn,  of  Gilpin,  and  of 
Strutt ;  to  the  learned,  but  over-labored,  "  Amoenitates  Quer- 
cineae ''  of  the  late  Professor  Burnet,  in  Burgess's  "  Eidoden- 
dron,"  and  especially  to  the  more  accessible  and  standard 
Arboretum  of  Loudon,  whose  condensed  statistical  account 
of  celebrated  British  Oaks,  occupying  thirty  closely  printed 
pages  of  that  elaborate  work,  is  a  monument  of  diligence, 
and  contains  a  vast  amount  of  interesting  information.  In- 
deed, Mr.  Loudon's  whole  account  of  the  Oak  is  incomparable, 
and  should  alone  suffice  to  immortalize  his  name.  Among 
the  oldest  specimens  now  extant  in  England  are  to  be  enu- 
merated, the  "  Parliament  Oak,"  in  Clipstone  Park,  supposed 
to  be  the  oldest  park  in  England,  which  derives  its  name 
from  a  Parliament  having  been  held  under  it  by  Edward 
the  First,  in  1290 ;  the  Oak  in  Yardly  Chase,  which  Cowper 
has  immortalized ;  the  "  Winfarthing  Oak,"  now  a  bleached 
ruin,  which  is  said  to  have  been  called  an  old  oak  at  the  time 
of  the  Conquest;  the  Oak  in  Melbury  Park,  Dorsetshire, 
which  Mitchell  calls  "  as  curly,  surly,  knotty  an  old  monster 
as  can  be  conceived  " ;  the  "  Greendale  Oak,"  in  the  Duke  of 
Portland's  park  at  Welbeck,  well  known  from  Evelyn's  ac- 
count, and  from  the  series  of  figures  which  his  editor,  Hunter, 
has  given  of  its  mutilated  trunk,  pierced  by  a  lofty  arch 
through  which  carriages  have  been  driven  ;  the  "  Cowthorpe 
Oak,"  in  Yorkshire,  also  figured  by  Hunter,  the  trunk  of 
which  measures  seventy-eight  feet  in  circumference  near  the 
ground,  and  the  age  is  estimated  as  nearly  coeval  with  the 
Christian  era;  and  the  "Great  Oak  of  Salcey  Forest,"  in 
Northamptonshire,  "  a  most  picturesque  sylvan  ruin,"  which 
is  perhaps  of  equal  antiquity. 

We  hajve  already  mentioned  the  tree  at  Bordza,  felled  some 
thirty  years  ago,  which  was  proved,  by  inspection  of  its  annual 
layers,  to  have  been  about  a  thousand  years  old.  Its  trunk 
was  forty  English  feet  in  circumference,  or  twelve  and  a  half 
feet  in  diameter.  This  was  a  goodly  tree  for  an  Oak  ;  but  it 
shrinks  almost  to  insignificance  when  compared  with  one  in 
the  south  of  France  ;  an  account  of  which  has  quite  recently 
been  published.     From  a  late   number  of  the  "  Gardeners' 


96  ESS  A  YS. 

Chronicle,"  edited  by  Professor  Lindley,  we  copy  the  follow- 
ing account,  which  purports  to  have  been  extracted  from  the 
Annals  of  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Rochelle. 

"At  about  six  miles  west-southwest  of  Saintes  (in  the 
Lower  Charente)  near  the  road  to  Cozes,  stands  an  old  Oak- 
tree,  in  the  large  court  of  a  modern  mansion,  which  still 
promises  to  live  many  centuries,  if  the  axe  of  some  Vandal 
does  not  cut  it  down.  The  following  are  the  proportions  of 
this  king  of  the  forests  of  France,  and  probably  of  all  Europe. 
The  diameter  of  the  trunk  at  the  ground  is  from  nine  to  ten 
yards  [consequently  its  circumference  is  from  eighty-five  to 
ninety-four  feet]  ;  at  the  height  of  a  man,  from  six  and  a  half 
to  seven  and  a  half  yards  [from  sixty  to  sixty-seven  feet  in 
circumference]  ;  the  diameter  of  the  whole  head,  from  forty 
to  forty-three  yards  ;  the  height  of  the  trunk,  eight  yards  ;  the 
general  height  of  the  tree,  twenty-two  yards.  A  room  has 
been  cut  out  of  the  dead  wood  of  the  interior  of  the  trunk, 
measuring  from  nine  to  twelve  feet  in  diameter,  and  nine  feet 
high  ;  and  they  have  cut  a  circular  seat  out  of  the  solid  wood. 
They  put  a  round  table  in  the  middle,  when  it  is  wanted, 
around  which  twelve  guests  can  sit.  A  door  and  a  window 
admit  daylight  into  this  new  sort  of  dining-room,  which  is 
adorned  by  a  living  carpet  of  Ferns,  Fungi,  Lichens,  etc. 
Upon  a  plate  of  wood  taken  from  the  trunk  about  the  height 
of  the  door,  two  hundred  annual  rings  have  been  counted, 
whence  it  results,  in  taking  a  horizontal  radius  from  the  ex- 
terior circumference  to  the  centre  of  the  oak,  that  there  must 
have  been  from  1800  to  2000  of  these  rings ;  which  makes  its 
age  nearly  two  thousand  years." 

We  should  have  been  told,  however,  from  what  portion  of 
the  radius  this  block  was  taken.  If  near  the  circumference, 
where  the  rings  are  the  narrowest,  the  age  of  the  tree  has 
been  over-estimated ;  perhaps  not  materially  so,  as  it  must 
have  been  growing  at  a  slow  and  nearly  equable  rate  for 
many  centuries  ;  if  towards  the  centre,  the  computed  age  is 
within  the  truth.  To  this  tree,  therefore,  as  being  probably 
the  patriarch  of  the  species  in  Europe,  may  well  be  applied 
the  lines  addressed  by  Cowper  -to  the  Yardley  Oak :  — 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  97 

"  O,  couldst  thou  speak, 
As  in  Dodona  once  thy  kindred  trees, 
Oracular,  I  would  not  curious  ask 
The  future,  best  unknown  ;  but,  at  thy  mouth, 
Inquisitive,  the  less  ambiguous  past  ! 
By  thee  I  might  correct,  erroneous  oft, 
The  clock  of  history  ;  facts  and  events 
Timing  more  punctual  ;  unrecorded  facts 
Recovering  ;  and  misstated,  setting  right." 

Rich  although  this  country  is,  above  all  other  parts  of  the 
world,  in  different  species  of  the  Oak,  it  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  explain  why  we  cannot  boast  of  such  venerable  trees, 

"  Whose  boughs  are  mossed  with  age, 
And  high  top  bald  with  dry  antiquity." 

It  is  not  merely,  or  chiefly,  that,  in  clearing  away  the  forest 
which  so  recently  covered  the  soil,  "  men  were  famous  accord- 
ing as  they  had  lifted  up  axes  upon  the  thick  trees."  The 
close,  stifling  growth  of  our  primeval  forests,  like  the  demo- 
cratic institutions  which  they  seem  to  foreshadow,  although 
favorable  to  mediocrity,  forbids  preeminence.  "  A  chilly, 
cheerless,  everlasting  shade "  prevents  the  fullest  individual 
development ;  and  even  if  the  woodman's  axe  had  spared  the 
older  trees,  their  high-drawn  trunks,  no  longer  shielded  by 
the  dense  array  of  their  brethren,  were  sure  to  be  overthrown 
by  the  winds.  Had  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  been  tillers  of 
the  ground,  our  White  Oaks  had  long  since  spread  their 
broad  brawny  arms,  and  emulated  their  more  renowned 
brethren  in  the  parks  of  England.  The  "  Charter  Oak  "  at 
Hartford,  so  conspicuous  in  the  colonial  history  of  Connecti- 
cut, and  a  few  others  of  equal  size,  but  less  note,  were  prob- 
ably mere  saplings  at  the  first  settlement  of  the  country. 
"  The  Wadsworth  Oak,"  in  Geneseo,  N.  Y.,  however,  may 
claim  a  higher  antiquity.  It  stands  in  an  old  "  Indian  clear- 
ing," on  the  bank  of  the  Genesee  River,  which,  we  are  sorry 
to  say,  is  gradually  undermining  its  roots  and  threatening  its 
destruction  ;  —  a  catastrophe  which  we  beseech  the  worthy 
proprietor  of  that  princely  estate  to  avert,  by  a  seasonable 
embankment.  A  note  in  an  earlier  volume  of  this  Review  1 
1  Vol.  xliv.  p.  345,  note. 


98  ESS  A  YS. 

assigns  to  this  noble  tree  the  age  of  at  least  yive  hundred 
years  ;  —  a  credible  estimate,  notwithstanding  the  girth  of  the 
tree  is  somewhat  overstated  in  that  account.  Its  circumfer- 
ence at  the  smallest  part  of  the  trunk  (four  feet  above  the 
ground),  —  which  is  always  the  proper  point  for  measure- 
ment, —  instead  of  from  twenty-four  to  twenty-seven,  is  only 
twenty-two  feet  four  inches ;  although  near  the  base,  owing  to 
the  influence  of  the  spreading  roots,  its  girth  is  considerably 
greater. 

But  of  all  American  species,  the  invaluable  Live  Oak  of 
our  southern  coasts  will  probably  be  found  to  attain  the  great- 
est longevity  ;  although  it  seldom  becomes  a  very  large,  or, 
at  any  rate,  a  very  tall  tree.  Like  the  finest  European  Oaks, 
its  branches  spread  very  widely,  and  contain  a  prodigious 
quantity  of  timber.  "  The  trunk  of  the  Live  Oak,"  says  Mr. 
Bar  tram,  in  his  delightful  "  Travels  in  Florida,"  "  is  generally 
[on  the  St.  John's  River]  from  twelve  to  eighteen  feet  in 
girth,  and  rises  ten  or  twelve  feet  erect  from  the  earth  ;  some 
I  have  seen  eighteen  or  twenty ;  then  divides  itself  into  three, 
four,  or  five  great  limbs  which  continue  to  grow  in  nearly  a 
horizontal  direction,  each  limb  forming  a  gentle  curve,  or 
arch,  from  its  base  to  its  extremity.  I  have  stepped  above 
fifty  paces,  on  a  straight  line,  from  the  trunk  of  one  of  these 
trees  to  the  extremity  of  the  limbs." 

The  younger  Michaux  mentions  a  tree  felled  near  Charles- 
ton, whose  trunk  was  twenty-four  feet  in  circumference  ;  and 
we  learn  that  another  individual  of  still  greater  size  is  still 
flourishing  on  the  plantation  of  Mr.  Middle  ton,  near  that 
city.  According  to  Mr.  Nuttall,1  the  tree  sometimes  acquires 
the  diameter  of  eight  or  nine  feet  in  west  Florida.  All  these 
trees  must  have  attained  a  great  age  ;  for  this  heavy  and  al- 
most incorruptible  wood  is  of  extremely  slow  growth.  May 
we  not  hope  that  some  competent  observer  will  collect  the 
requisite  information  upon  this  subject,  before  all  the  larger 
trunks  have  yielded  to  their  impending  fate  ? 

The  Olive  grows  much  more  slowly  than  the  Oak,  and  as 
its  wood  is  very  compact  and  durable,  it  is  not  surprising 
1  "  N.  Am.  Sylva,"  Supplement,  i.  p.  16. 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF    TREES.  99 

that  it  should  furnish  instances  of  extraordinary  longevity. 
In  comparative  youth,  the  stem  increases  in  diameter  only  at 
the  rate  of  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  a  year.  Therefore  the 
Olive  at  Pescio,  mentioned  by  De  Candolle,  having  a  trunk 
of  twenty-four  feet  in  girth,  should  be  seven  hundred  years 
old  ;  even  supposing  it  to  have  grown,  throughout,  at  the 
ordinary  rate  for  younger  trees ;  while  the  still  larger  tree  at 
Beaulieu,  near  Nice,  described  by  Risso,  and  recently  meas- 
ured by  Berthelot,  doubtless  the  oldest  of  the  race  in  Europe, 
should  be  more  than  a  thousand  years  old.  Although  now  in 
a  state  of  decrepitude,  it  still  bears  an  abundant  crop  of  fruit, 
or  at  least  did  so,  as  late  as  the  year  1828.1  It  is  not  im- 
probable, therefore,  that  those  eight  venerable  trees,  which 
yet  survive  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives,  may  have  been  in 
existence,  as  tradition  asserts,  at  the  time  of  our  Saviour's 
passion. 

Let  us  now  direct  our  attention  to  the  class  of  coniferous 
trees,  among  which,  on  account  of  the  resinous  matters  that 
commonly  pervade  their  wood  and  tend  to  preserve  it  from 
decay,  as  well  as  for  other  reasons  which  we  will  not  stop  to 
explain,  instances  of  longevity  may  be  expected  to  occur  not 
inferior  to  those  already  noticed. 

We  begin  with  the  classical  cypress  ( Cupressus  semper- 
virens),  so  celebrated  in  all  antiquity  for  the  incorruptibility 
of  its  wood  and  its  funeral  uses  ;  doubtless,  one  of  the  longest 
lived  trees  of  southern  Europe  and  of  the  East.  Hunter, 
in  his  edition  of  Evelyn,  about  a  century  ago,  mentions  the 
fine  avenue  of  Cypresses  "  Los  Cupressos  de  la  Reyna  Sul- 
tana," which  adorns  the  garden  of  the  Generaliffe  at  Gra- 
nada. Under  their  shade,  according  to  the  well-known  legend, 
the  last  Moorish  king  of  Granada  surprised  his  wife  with  one 
of  the  Abencerrages,  which  led  to  the  massacre  of  thirty-six 
princes  of  that  race.  This  was,  of  course,  before  the  year 
1492,  the  date  of  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Moors.  These 
enduring  memorials  of  frailty  and  revenge  were  still  flourish- 
ing in  perennial  vigor  in  1831,  when  they  were  examined  by 

1  Risso,   "Hist.  Nat.   Europ.  Merid.,"  ex  Moquin-Tandon,  "Teratol. 
Veg.,"  p.  105. 


100  ESSA  YS. 

Mr.  Webb.  Supposing  them  to  have  been  only  forty  or  fifty 
years  old  at  the  occurrence  of  the  event  to  which  they  owe 
their  celebrity,  —  surely  a  reasonable  supposition,  as  they 
were  then  large  trees,  according  to  the  legend,  —  they  have 
now  reached  the  age  of  about  four  hundred  years.  They  are 
probably  much  older  than  this. 

But  these  and  all  other  Cypresses  known  in  Europe  are 
striplings  in  comparison  with  the  tree  at  Somma,  in  Lom- 
bard}-, which  Loudon  has  figured  in  his  Arboretum  (p.  2470), 
from  an  original  drawing  furnished  by  Signor  Manetti  of 
Monza.  The  tree  is  greatly  reverenced  by  the  inhabitants 
of  that  part  of  Lombardy,  who  have  a  tradition  that  it  was 
planted  in  the  year  of  our  Saviour's  birth.  Even  Napoleon 
is  said  to  have  treated  it  with  some  deference,  and  to  have 
deviated  from  a  direct  line  to  avoid  injuring  it,  when  laying 
down  the  plan  for  the  great  road  over  the  Simplon.  Its 
trunk  was  twenty  feet  in  girth,  according  to  the  Abbe  Be- 
lize's measurement,  in  1832,  or  twenty-three  feet  at  the  height 
of  a  foot  from  the  ground,  as  Signor  Manetti  states.  Since 
the  Cypress  only  attains  the  circumference  of  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen feet  in  four  hundred  years  or  more,  and  after  that  must 
increase  with  extreme  slowness,  we  may,  perhaps,  place  some 
credit  in  the  popular  tradition  respecting  the  age  of  this  tree, 
or  in  the  testimony  of  the  Abbe  Beleze,  who  informed  Mr. 
Loudon  that  his  brother  assured  him,  that  there  is  an  ancient 
chronicle  extant  at  Milan,  which  proves  this  tree  to  have 
been  in  existence  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  ! 

To  the  same  class,  also,  belongs  the  goodly  Cedar  of  Leba- 
non (Cedrus  Libani),  from  which  the  sacred  writers  have 
derived  so  many  forcible  and  noble  images.  It  is  generally 
employed  as  an  emblem  of  perennial  vigor  and  longevity. 
The  most  plausible  derivation  of  the  name  is  from  the  Arabic 
"  kedroum  "  or  "kedre,"  signifying  "power"  ;  and  the  most 
characteristic  description  of  the  tree,  with  its  widespread  hori- 
zontal branches  and  close- woven  leafy  canopy,  is  that  given 
by  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  where  it  is  assumed  as  a  type  of  the 
grandeur  and  strength  of  the  Assyrian  empire. 

"  Behold,  the  Assyrian  was  a  Cedar  in  Lebanon,  with  fair 


THE   LONGEVITY   OF    TREES.  101 

branches,  and  with  a  shadowing  shroud,  and  of  an  high  stat- 
ure ;  and  his  top  was  among  the  thick  boughs.  .  .  .  Thus  was 
he  fair  in  his  greatness,  in  the  length  of  his  branches  ;  for 
his  root  was  by  great  waters.  The  Cedars  in  the  garden  of 
God  could  not  hide  him  ;  the  Fir-trees  were  not  like  his 
boughs,  and  the  Chestnut-trees  were  not  like  his  branches  ; 
nor  any  tree  in  the  garden  of  God  like  unto  him  in  beauty." 
(Ezekiel,  xxxi.  3,  7,  8.) 

The  celebrated  grove  near  the  summit  of  Mount  Lebanon, 
to  which  there  are  particular  allusions  in  Holy  Writ,  was  first 
described  in  modern  times  by  Belon,  who  visited  it  about  the 
year  1550.  The  majestic  old  Cedars  of  this  grove  —  at  that 
time  the  sole,  as  they  are  still  the  finest,  known  representatives 
of  the  species  —  were  then,  as  now,  venerated  by  the  Maro- 
nite  Christians,  who  firmly  believed  them  to  have  been  coeval 
with  Solomon,  if  not  planted  by  his  own  hands,  and  made  an 
annual  pilgrimage  to  the  spot,  at  the  festival  of  the  Trans- 
figuration ;  the  Patriarch  celebrating  high  mass  under  one  of 
the  oldest  Cedars,  and  very  properly  anathematizing  all  who 
should  presume  to  injure  them.  The  larger  trees  were  de- 
scribed and  measured  by  Rauwolf,  an  early  German  trav- 
eler, in  1574  ;  by  Thevenot,  in  1655  ;  and  more  particularly 
by  Maundrell,  in  1696  ;  by  La  Roque,  in  1722  ;  by  Dr.  Po- 
cocke,  in  1744,  and  by  Labillardiere,  in  1787  ;  since  which 
time,  De  Candolle  states,  that  all  the  older  trees  have  been 
destroyed.  But  we  have  not  been  able  to  find  the  author- 
ity for  this  statement,  and  have  reason  to  doubt  its  correct- 
ness. Although  the  number  of  large  trees  has  diminished  in 
every  succeeding  age,  yet  several  recent  visitors  mention  a 
few  large  trunks  of  equal  size  with  those  described  by  the 
earlier  travelers.  Indeed,  M.  Laure,  an  officer  of  the  French 
Marine,  who  with  the  Prince  de  Joinville  visited  Mount 
Lebanon  in  the  autumn  of  1836,  says,  that  all  but  one  of  the 
sixteen  old  Cedars  mentioned  by  Maundrell  are  still  alive, 
although  in  a  decaying  state  ;  and  that  one  of  the  healthiest, 
but  perhaps  the  smallest  trunks,  measured  thirty-three  French 
feet,  or  about  thirty-six  English  feet,  in  circumference,  which, 
by  the  way,  is  nearly  the  girth  of  the  largest  that  Maundrell 


102  ESS  A  YS. 

measured.  We  have  little  faith,  however,  in  this  particular 
identification ;  nor  do  we  place  confidence  in  the  rate  of  growth 
of  old  Cedars,  as  deduced  from  the  measurement  of  these  trees 
at  different  periods.  For,  could  we  be  sure  that  any  two  of 
these  measurements  were  actually  taken  from  the  same  trunk, 
it  is  still  very  unlikely  that  they  were  made  at  the  same  height 
from  the  ground, —  a  matter  of  great  consequence,  but  which 
is  left  out  of  view  in  the  records  of  the  early  travelers.  But 
the  girth  of  the  larger  trees  being  known  by  various  measure- 
ments, and  the  average  rate  of  growth  of  young  Cedars  being 
approximately  determined  from  individuals  that  have  grown 
in  Europe,  of  well  ascertained  age  and  size,  —  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  those  in  the  Chelsea  Botanic  Garden,  near  London, 
planted  in  1683,  and  the  fine  tree  which  adorns  the  hill  in  the 
Jardin  des  Plantes  at  Paris,  and  which  was  brought  from 
England  in  1734  by  Bernard  de  Jussieu, —  carried,  it  is 
said,  in  the  crown  of  his  hat  for  greater  security,  whose  trunk, 
at  its  centennial  anniversary,  had  just  attained  the  circumfer- 
ence of  ten  feet,  —  we  only  need  to  know  the  thickness  of  the 
outer  layers  of  these  remarkable  old  trunks,  or,  in  other 
words,  their  actual  and  recent  rate  of  increase,  in  order  to 
form  a  highly  probable  estimate  of  their  age.  By  a  few  care- 
ful incisions  into  these  trunks,  the  next  traveler  into  the  now 
frequented  East,  who  feels  interested  in  such  questions,  might 
supply  this  remaining  desideratum,  without  real  injury  to 
these  renowned  natural  monuments,  or  just  exposure  to  the 
Patriarch's  anathema. 

From  such  very  imperfect  data  as  we  now  possess,  De 
Candolle  deems  the  trees  measured  by  Rauwolf  to  have  been 
at  least  six  hundred  years  old ;  which  would  give  the  age  of 
nearly  nine  hundred  years  to  any  of  the  number  that  may 
still  survive.  This  estimate  may  fall  considerably  below  the 
truth  ;  but  our  present  knowledge  will  not  warrant  the  as- 
sumption of  a  higher  one.  Doubtless,  this  remarkable  forest 
has  existed  from  primeval  times,  while  the  oldest  individuals, 
from  age  to  age,  have  decayed  and  disappeared.  But  vener- 
able as  are  the  present  representatives,  which  La  Martine  so 
grandiloquently  apostrophizes,  and  conceives  to  have  existed 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  103 

in  the  days  of  Solomon,  "yet  few  comparatively  have  the 
days  of  the  years  of  their  life  been,  and  have  not  attained 
unto  the  days  of  the  years  of  the  life  of  their  fathers,"  the 
real  patriarchs  of  the  world-renowned  grove. 

The  Yew  has,  probably,  a  well  founded  claim  to  its  repu- 
tation as  the  longest-lived  tree  of  northern  Europe ;  and  its 
longevity  appears  the  less  surprising,  when  the  closeness  and 
incorruptibility  of  the  wood  are  considered,  as  well  as  its  ex- 
treme slowness  of  growth.     A  Yew 

"  Of  vast  circumference  and  gloom  profound  " 

is  truly,  as  Wordsworth  has  it, 

"  a  living  thing, 
Produced  too  slowly  ever  to  decay  ; 
Of  form  aud  aspect  too  magnificent 
To  be  destroyed." 

The  frequent  occurrence  of  ancient  Yews  in  English  church- 
yards is  simply  and  beautifully  explained  by  Mr.  Bowman ; l 
—  the  Yew,  being  indisputably  indigenous  to  Great  Britain, 
and  being,  from  its  perennial  verdure,  its  longevity,  and  the 
durability  of  its  wood,  at  once  an  emblem  and  an  example  of 
immortality,  its  branches  would  be  employed  by  our  Pagan 
ancestors,  on  their  first  arrival,  as  the  best  substitute  for  the 
Cypress,  to  deck  the  graves  of  the  dead,  and  for  other  sacred 
purposes  ;  and  the  innocent  custom,  like  others  of  heathen 
origin,  would  naturally  be  retained  and  engrafted  upon  Chris- 
tianity at  its  first  introduction. 

From  the  inspection  of  various  trunks  of  two  or  three 
hundred  years  old,  De  Candolle  drew  the  conclusion  that  the 
trunk  of  the  Yew  increases  in  diameter  at  the  rate  of  a  little 
more  than  a  line  —  the  twelfth  of  an  inch  —  in  a  year  for  the 
first  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  at  a  little  less  than  this 
rate  during  the  next  century  or  two.  De  Candolle  proposed, 
therefore,  to  estimate  the  age  of  ancient  Yews  by  assuming  a 
line  per  annum  as  their  average  growth  in  diameter.  Their 
age  would  in  this  way  be  readily  computed  by  measuring  their 
circumference,  and  thence  obtaining  the  radius  in  lines  ;  the 
tree  being  reckoned  as  many  years  old  as  there  are  lines  in 
i  In  "Mag.  Nat.  Hist,"  2d  ser.,  i.  p.  86. 


104  ESSAYS. 

its  diameter.  Since  all  trees  grow  the  more  slowly  as  they 
advance  in  years,  this  method  would  seem  to  be  a  safe  one,  if 
we  were  well  assured  that  the  average  rate  of  growth  has 
been  correctly  assumed.  But  extended  observation  upon 
Yews  in  England  has  shown  that  young  trees  often  grow 
much  more  rapidly  than  De  Candolle  supposed  ;  so  that,  from 
the  application  of  his  rule  to  Yews  not  more  than  four  or  five 
hundred  years  old,  we  should  be  liable  greatly  to  exaggerate 
their  age.  But  it  is  also  found  that  still  older  trees  grow  so 
much  more  slowly,  that  the  rule  may  be  applied  to  very  an- 
cient Yews  with  reasonable  probability  that  the  estimate  will 
fall  beneath  the  truth,  and  make  them  appear  younger  than 
they  really  are.  The  greater  the  circumference  of  the  tree,  the 
less  the  danger  that  its  more  rapid  early  growth  will  falsify 
the  estimate.  The  adoption  of  this  rule  leads,  however,  to 
rather  startling  conclusions. 

The  computed  age  of  the  famous  Yews  of  Fountains'  Abbey, 
near  Ripon,  in  Yorkshire,  is  to  a  great  extent  sustained  by 
the  history  of  the  abbey  itself,  as  chronicled  by  Hugh,  a  monk 
of  Kirkstall,  whose  narrative  —  still  preserved,  it  is  said,  in 
the  library  of  the  Royal  Society  —  forms  the  basis  of  the  well 
known  account  in  Burton's  "  Monasticon."  Th'is  monastery, 
the  noble  ruins  of  which  are  now  overlooked  by  the  venerable 
trees  that  watched  its  erection,  was  founded  in  the  year  1132, 
by  Thurstan,  Archbishop  of  York,  for  certain  monks,  whose 
consciences,  being  too  tender  to  allow  them  to  indulge  in  the 
relaxed  habits  of  their  own  order,  made  them  desirous  of 
adopting  the  more  rigid  rule  of  the  Cistercians,  then  recently 
introduced  into  England. 

"At  Christmas,"  therefore,  says  Burton,  "the  Archbishop, 
being  at  Ripon,  assigned  to  these  monks  some  land  in  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  about  three  miles  west  of  that  place, 
for  the  erecting  of  a  monastery.  The  spot  of  ground  had 
never  been  inhabited,  unless  by  wild  beasts,  being  overgrown 
with  woods  and  brambles,  lying  between  two  steep  hills  and 
rocks,  covered  with  wood  on  all  sides,  more  proper  for  a  re- 
treat for  wild  beasts  than  for  the  human  species.  .  .  .  Richard, 
the  Prior  of  St.  Mary's  at  York,  was  chosen  Abbot  by  the 


THE  LONGEVITY   OF   TREES.  105 

monks,  being  the  first  of  this  Monastery  of  Fountains ;  with 
whom  they  withdrew  into  this  uneouth  desert,  without  any 
house  to  shelter  them  in  that  winter  season,  or  provisions  to 
subsist  on,  but  entirely  depending  on  Divine  Providence. 
There  stood  a  large  Elm  in  the  midst  of  the  vale,  on  which 
they  put  some  thatch  or  straw,  and  under  that  they  lay,  ate, 
and  prayed ;  the  Bishop  for  a  time  supplying  them  with 
bread,  and  the  rivulet  with  drink.  But  it  is  supposed  that 
they  soon  changed  the  shelter  of  their  Elm  for  that  of  seven 
Yew-trees  growing  on  the  declivity  of  the  hill  on  the  south 
side  of  the  abbey;  all  standing  at  this  present  time  [1G58], 
except  the  largest,  which  was  blown  down  about  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  They  are  of  an  extraordinary  size  ;  the 
trunk  of  one  of  them  is  twenty-six  feet  six  inches  in  circum- 
ference at  the  height  of  three  feet  from  the  ground  ;  and 
they  stand  so  near  each  other  as  to  form  a  cover  almost  equal 
to  a  thatched  roof.  Under  these  trees,  we  are  told  by  tradi- 
tion, the  monks  resided  till  they  built  the  monastery  ;  which 
seems  to  be  very  probable,  if  we  consider  how  little  a  Yew- 
tree  increases  in  a  year,  and  to  what  a  bulk  these  are  grown." 
(Burton,  Monast.,  fol.  141.) 

We  have  Pennant's  measurements  of  one  of  these  trees, 
taken  in  1770,  giving  it  a  diameter  of  eight  feet  five  inches, 
or  1212  lines.  Hence,  according  to  De  Candolle's  rule,  it 
was  then  1200  years  old. 

The  fine  Yew  at  Dryburgh  Abbey,  which  is  supposed  to 
have  been  planted  when  the  abbey  was  founded,  in  1136,  and 
which  is  in  full  health  and  vigor,  has  a  trunk  only  twelve  feet 
in  circumference ;  its  estimated  age  would,  therefore,  be  less 
than  six  hundred  years. 

The  "  Ankernyke  Yew,"  near  Staines,  a  witness  of  the  con- 
ference between  the  English  barons  and  King  John,  and  in 
sight  of  which  Magna  Charta  was  signed  (between  Runny- 
mede  and  Ankernyke  House),  and  beneath  whose  shade  the 
brutal  Henry  the  Eighth  first  saw  gospel  light  in  Anna 
Boleyn's  eyes,  measures  twenty-seven  feet  eight  inches  in  cir- 
cumference, and  should  therefore  be  1100  years  old.  which  is 
about  the  a^e  that  tradition  assigns  to  it.     The  trunk  of  the 


106  ESSA  YS. 

"  Darley  Yew "  in  Derbyshire,  having  a  mean  diameter  of 
nine  feet  five  inches,  would,  by  this  rule,  be  1356  years  old. 
The  Yew  in  Tisbury  churchyard,  Dorsetshire,  the  trunk  of 
which  measures  thirty-seven  feet  in  circumference,  would  now 
be  almost  1600  years  old.  The  same  computation,  applied 
to  the  "  superannuated  Yew-tree  of  Braburne  churchyard, 
Kent,"  which,  by  the  measurements  of  Evelyn  himself  and 
of  Sir  George  Carteret,  was  fifty-eight  feet  eleven  inches  in 
circumference  in  the  year  1660,  would  give  it  the  respectable 
age  of  2540  years  at  that  time  !  This  tree  has  long  ago  dis- 
appeared. But  it  did  not  greatly  exceed  in  size  the  Yew 
still  extant  in  Fortingal  churchyard,  in  Perthshire,  Scotland, 
situated  in  a  wild  district  among  the  Grampian  Mountains, 
which  forms  a  good  collateral  witness  to  the  credibility  of 
Evelyn's  account.  The  trunk  of  the  "  Fortingal  Yew  "  was 
fifty-two  feet  in  circumference,  when  measured  hy  the  Hon. 
Daines  Barrington  in  1769  ; 1  or  fifty-six  feet  six  inches,  ac- 
cording to  Pennant's  somewhat  later  measurement ; 2  the  dis- 
crepancy being,  no  doubt,  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  two 
measurements  were  taken  at  different  heights.  In  Barring- 
ton's  time,  the  surface  was  nearly  entire  at  the  base,  although 
upon  one  side  all  the  interior  had  decayed.  Afterwards,  the 
cavity  reached  the  opposite  surface  ;  and  the  trunk  at  length 
separated  into  two  distinct  semicircular  portions,  dead  and 
decaying  within,  but  alive  and  growing  at  the  circumference, 
between  which  the  rustic  funeral  processions  were  long  accus- 
tomed to  pass  on  their  way  to  the  grave.  In  this  condition 
it  is  figured  by  Strutt,  as  the  first  illustration  of  his  "  Sylva 
Scotica  "  ;  but  he  has  omitted  to  inform  us  when  the  sketch 
was  taken.  We  suspect  that  it  represents  the  tree  as  it  ap- 
peared more  than  fifty  years  ago  ;  for,  if  we  rightly  appre- 
hend the  account  given  by  the  excellent  Dr.  Neill  of  Edin- 
burgh, who  visited  the  place  in  the  summer  of  1833,  one  of 
these  half-trunks  has  now  disappeared,  with  the  exception  of 
some  decayed  portions  that  scarcely  rise  above  the  soil ;  but 
the  other,  which  still  shoots  forth  branches  from  the  summit, 

1  "  Phil.  Trans.,"  lix.  p.  37. 

2  "  Tours  in  Scotland,"  in  Pinkerton's  Gen.  Coll.,  vol.  iii. 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  107 

"  gives  a  diameter  of  more  than  fifteen  feet ;  so  that  it  is  easy 
to  conceive  that  the  circumference  of  the  bole,  when  entire, 
should  have  exceeded  fifty  feet."  "  Considerable  spoliations," 
Dr.  Neill  further  observes,  "  have  evidently  been  committed 
on  the  tree  since  1769 ;  large  arms  have  been  removed,  and 
masses  of  the  trunk  itself  carried  off  by  the  country  people, 
with  the  view  of  forming  'queens'  or  drinking -cups,  and 
other  relics,  which  visitors  were  in  the  habit  of  purchasing. 
Happily,  further  depredations  have  been  prevented  by  means 
of  an  iron  rail,  which  now  surrounds  the  sacred  spot ;  and 
this  venerable  Yew,  which  in  all  probability  was  a  flourishing 
tree  at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  may  yet  sur- 
vive for  centuries  to  come."  1 

But  we  must  not  forget  the  typical  representatives  of  the 
class  of  coniferous  trees,  the  stately  Pines  and  Firs  ;  several 
species  of  which  attain  a  great  size,  and  especially  an  unex- 
ampled height.  Indeed,  their  mode  of  growth  —  their 
straight,  regularly  tapering  trunks,  carried  steadily  upwards 
by  the  continued  prolongation  of  the  leading  shoot,  as  well  as 
the  small  lateral  extension  of  their  branches  —  is  extremely 
favorable  to  loftiness  of  stature,  and  to  full  development  in  the 
midst  of  the  forest.  In  such  trees  our  own  country  abounds. 
We  need  not  dwell  upon  so  familiar  an  object  as  our  own 
White  Pine,  which,  like  Saul,  "  from  his  shoulders  upwards, 
higher  than  any  of  the  people,"  lifts  its  kingly  form  above  its 
forest  brethren,  to  the  altitude  of  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  at  least  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet. 

"  Not  a  prince, 
In  all  that  proud  old  world  beyond  the  deep, 
E'er  wore  his  crown  as  loftily,  as  he 
Wears  his  green  coronal  of  leaves." 

The  White  Pine  is,  par  excellence,  a  New  England  tree, 
and  has  ever  been  identified  with  our  commercial  prosperity. 
The  colonists  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  at  a  very  early  period, 
selected  it  as  their  cognizance,  and  when  they  first  assumed 
the  rights  of  a  free  people,  they  stamped  its  image  on  their 
coins.  It  does  not  seem  to  flourish  on  foreign  soil  ;  as  we 
1  Jameson's  "  Edinb.  Phil.  Jour."  (1833),  xv.  p.  343. 


108  ESSA  YS. 

infer  from  Loudon's  description,  and  the  ill-favored  figure 
which  he  gives  as  an  illustration  of  its  general  appearance  in 
English  parks  and  pleasure-grounds  ; 1  no  less  than  from  Gil- 
pin's complaint  of  its  "meagreness  in  foliage."  2 

Yet  even  the  White  Pine  is  overtopped  by  the  Douglas 
Spruce  (Pimis  Douglasi),  which  forms  the  principal  part  of 
the  gloomy  forests  of  Oregon.  The  extraordinary  height 
which  this  species  attains  was  first  recorded  by  Lewis  and 
Clarke  ;  who  state  that  the  trunk  is  very  commonly  twenty- 
seven,  and  often  thirty-six  feet,  in  circumference,  at  six  feet 
above  the  earth's  surface  ;  and  rises  to  the  height  of  two 
hundred  and  thirty  feet  —  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  that 
height  without  a  limb.  One  which  was  measured  by  a  mem- 
ber of  their  party  is  said  to  have  been  forty-two  feet  in  girth, 
at  a  height  beyond  the  reach  of  an  ordinary  man,  and  was 
estimated  to  reach  the  altitude  of  three  hundred  feet !  3  This 
account,  so  far  as  respects  the  general  height  of  the  tree,  has 
been  amply  confirmed  by  succeeding  travelers,  and  especially 
by  that  enterprising  botanist,  the  late  Mr.  Douglas,  whose 
name  the  species  bears,  and  to  whom  its  discovery  is  generally 
attributed.4  Mr.  Douglas  was  really  the  first  to  make  known 
the  Lambert  Pine  (JPinus  Lambert ianci)  to  the  scientific 
world  ;  a  species  which  grows  on  the  southern  frontiers  of 
Oregon  Territory  and  in  northern  California  ;  the  height  of 
which  is  the  more  extraordinary,  as  the  trees  do  not  form  a 
thick  forest,  but  are  rather  sparsely  scattered  over  the  plains. 

i  "  Arb.  Brit.,"  iv.  p.  2881  f.,  2196. 

2  "Forest  Scenery,"  i.  p.  87.  —  The  natural  and  economical  history  of 
this  important  tree  has  already  been  fully  recorded  on  the  pages  of  this 
Journal.     Vol.  xliv.  p.  339,  and  vol.  lviii.  p.  300. 

3  "History  of  the  Expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,"  ii.  p.  155.  —  More 
surprising  still,  and,  as  to  the  height  compared  with  the  diameter  of 
the  trunk,  to  us  nearly  incredible,  is  their  account  of  a  fallen  tree  of  the 
same  species  on  Wappatoo  Island,  which,  they  state.  "  measured  318  feet 
in  length,  although  its  diameter  was  only  three  feet  ! "  (Op.  cit.  ii. 
p.  225.) 

4  We  have  not  found  Lewis  and  Clarke's  account  anywhere  cited  or 
alluded  to,  except  by  the  accurate  (former)  editor  of  the  "  American  Al- 
manac," in  the  volume  for  1838,  p.  108. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  109 

To  give  our  readers  some  idea  of  the  hardships  which  this 
indefatigable  collector  endured,  and  the  risks  at  which  our 
nurseries  have  been  stocked  with  the  trees,  and  our  gardens 
with  the  now  familiar  flowers  of  Oregon  and  California,  we 
extract  from  the  journal  of  Douglas  a  portion  of  the  account 
of  his  visit  to  a  group  of  these  Lambert  Pines  :  merely  re- 
marking that  it  seems  to  afford  a  fair  specimen  of  the  perils 
which  he  continually  incurred.  Poor  fellow  !  to  have  the  life 
at  last  stamped  out  of  him  by  a  mad  bullock  in  a  pit,  while 
pursuing  his  researches  upon  one  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  ! 

"  Thursday,  the  25th.  Weather  dull,  cold,  and  cloudy. 
When  my  friends  in  England  are  made  acquainted  with  my 
travels,  I  fear  they  will  think  that  I  have  told  nothing  but 
my  miseries.  This  may  be  true  ;  but  I  now  know,  as  they  may 
do  also,  if  the}'  choose  to  come  here  on  such  an  expedition, 
that  the  objects  of  which  I  am  in  quest  cannot  be  obtained 
without  labor,  anxiety  of  mind,  and  no  small  risk  of  personal 
safety,  of  which  latter  statement  my  this  day's  adventures 
are  an  instance.  I  quitted  my  camp  early  in  the  morning, 
to  survey  the  neighboring  country,  leaving  my  guide  to 
take  charge  of  the  horses  until  my  return  in  the  evening, 
when  I  found  that  he  had  done  as  I  wished,  and  in  the  inter- 
val dried  some  wet  paper  which  I  had  desired  him  to  put  in 
order.  About  an  hour's  walk  from  my  camp  I  met  an  In- 
dian, who,  on  perceiving  me,  instantly  strung  his  bow,  placed 
on  his  left  arm  a  sleeve  of  raccoon  skin,  and  stood  on  the  de- 
fensive. Being  quite  satisfied  that  this  conduct  was  prompted 
by  fear,  and  not  by  hostile  intentions,  the  poor  fellow  having 
probably  never  seen  such  a  being  as  myself  before,  I  laid  my 
gun  at  my  feet  on  the  ground,  and  waved  my  hand  for  him 
to  come  to  me,  which  he  did,  slowly  and  with  great  caution. 
I  then  made  him  place  his  bow  and  quiver  of  arrows  beside 
my  gun,  and,  striking  a  light,  gave  him  a  smoke  out  of  my 
own  pipe,  and  a  present  of  a  few  beads.  With  my  pencil  I 
made  a  rou^h  sketch  of  the  cone  and  Pine-tree  which  I 
wanted  to  obtain,  and  drew  his  attention  to  it,  when  he  in- 
stantly pointed  with  his  hand  to  the  hills  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles  distant  towards  the  south ;  and  when  I  expressed  my 


110  ESSAYS. 

intention  of  going  thither,  he  cheerfully  set  about  accompany- 
ing me.  At  mid-day  I  reached  my  long-wished-for  Pines,  and 
lost  no  time  in  examining  them,  and  endeavoring  to  collect 
specimens  and  seeds.  New  and  strange  things  seldom  fail  to 
make  strong  impressions,  and  are  therefore  frequently  over- 
rated ;  so  that,  lest  I  should  never  again  see  my  friends  in 
England  to  inform  them  verbally  of  this  most  beautiful  and 
immensely  grand  tree,  I  shall  here  state  the  dimensions  of 
the  largest  I  could  find  among  several  that  had  been  blown 
down  by  the  wind.  At  three  feet  from  the  ground,  its  cir- 
cumference is  fifty-seven  feet  nine  inches  ;  at  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  feet,  seventeen  feet  five  inches ;  the  extreme 
length  two  hundred  and  forty-five  feet.1  The  trunks  are 
commonly  straight,  and  the  bark  remarkably  smooth  for  such 
large  timber,  of  a  whitish  or  light-brown  color,  and  yielding 
a  great  quantity  of  bright  amber  gum.  The  tallest  stems  are 
generally  unbranched  for  two  thirds  of  the  height  of  the  tree  ; 
the  branches  rather  pendulous,  with  cones  hanging  from  their 
points,  like  sugar-loves  in  a  grocer's  shop.  These  cones  are, 
however,  only  seen  on  the  loftiest  trees,  and  the  putting  my- 
self in  possession  of  three  of  these  (all  I  could  obtain)  nearly 
brought  my  life  to  a  close.  As  it  was  impossible  either  to 
climb  the  tree  or  hew  it  down,  I  endeavored  to  knock  off  the 
cones  by  firing  at  them  with  ball,  when  the  report  of  my  gun 
brought  eight  Indians,  all  of  them  painted  with  red  earth, 
armed  with  bows,  arrows,  bone-tipped  spears,  and  flint  knives. 
They  appeared  anything  but  friendly.  I  endeavored  to  ex- 
plain to  them  what  I  wanted,  and  they  seemed  satisfied,  and 
sat  down  to  smoke ;  but  presently  I  perceived  one  of  them 

1  We  take  this  to  be  the  correct  account.  But,  by  an  error  in  copying, 
as  we  suppose,  the  length  of  this  same  tree  is  given  at  only  two  hundred 
and  fifteen  feet,  in  the  memoir  inserted  in  the  16th  volume  of  the  "  Trans- 
actions of  the  Linnrean  Society  "  j  whence  it  has  been  copied  into  Lambert's 
great  work  on  Pines,  Loudon's  Arboretum,  the  "  American  Almanac  " 
for  1838,  and  Hooker's  "Flora  Boreali- Americana."  There  is  another 
apparent  discrepancy  between  the  two  accounts.  In  the  Linnaean  Trans- 
actions, the  timber  is  said  to  be  "  white,  soft,  and  light."  In  his  journal, 
Douglas  says,  the  wood  of  the  large  tree  he  examined  was  "  remarkably 
fine-grained  and  heavy." 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF  TREES.  Ill 

string  his  bow,  and  another  sharpen  his  flint-knife  with  a  pair 
of  wooden  pincers,  and  suspend  it  on  the  wrist  of  the  right 
hand.  Further  testimony  of  their  intention  was  unnecessary. 
To  save  myself  by  flight  was  impossible  ;  so,  without  hesita- 
tion, I  stepped  back  about  five  paces,  cocked  my  gun,  drew 
one  of  the  pistols  out  of  my  belt,  and  holding  it  in  my  left 
hand  and  the  gun  in  my  right,  showed  myself  determined  to 
fight  for  my  life.  As  much  as  possible  I  endeavored  to  pre- 
serve my  coolness ;  and  thus  we  stood  looking  at  one  another 
without  making  any  movement  or  uttering  a  word  for  perhaps 
ten  minutes,  when  one,  at  last,  who  seemed  the  leader,  gave 
a  sign  that  they  wished  for  some  tobacco  :  this  I  signified 
that  they  should  have,  if  they  fetched  me  a  quantity  of  cones. 
They  went  off  immediately  in  search  of  them,  and  no  sooner 
were  they  all  out  of  sight,  than  I  picked  up  my  three  cones 
and  some  twigs  of  the  trees,  and  made  the  quickest  possible 
retreat,  hurrying  back  to  my  camp,  which  I  reached  before 
dusk.  The  Indian  who  last  undertook  to  be  my  guide  to 
the  trees,  I  sent  off  before  gaining  my  encampment,  lest  he 
should  betray  me.  How  irksome  is  the  darkness  of  night 
to  one  under  my  present  circumstances  !  I  cannot  speak  a 
word  to  my  guide,  nor  have  I  a  book  to  divert  my  thoughts, 
which  are  continually  occupied  with  the  dread  lest  the  hostile 
Indians  should  trace  me  hither  and  make  an  attack.  I  now 
write  lying  on  the  grass,  with  my  gun  cocked  beside  me,  and 
penning  these  lines  by  the  light  of  my  Columbian  candle, 
namely,  an  ignited  piece  of  rosiny  wood."  ("  Companion  to 
Botanical  Magazine,"  ii.  pp.  130,  131.) 

It  is  to  be  regretted,  although,  under  the  circumstances,  it 
is  by  no  means  surprising,  that  Mr.  Douglas  did  not  secure, 
at  the  time,  complete  data  for  ascertaining  the  age  of  the 
prostrate  trunk  he  measured,  which,  as  he  states,  was  certainly 
not  the  largest  he  saw.  But  in  a  block  from  a  smaller  trunk, 
of  the  same  species,  he  sent  to  England,  "  there  are  fifty-six 
annual  layers  in  a  space  of  four  and  a  half  inches  next  the 
outside."  If  we  suppose  the  large  tree  to  have  grown  at  an 
equivalent  rate  throughout,  it  must  have  been  1400  years  old 
when  overthrown.     But  if  it  grew  during  the  first  century  at 


112  ESSA  YS. 

the  average  rate  of  our  White  Pine  for  the  same  period,  the 
estimate  would  be  reduced  to  1100  years ;  which  is  probably 
much  beneath  the  truth. 

But  the  most  stately  tree  in  North  America  —  apparently 
an  evergreen  species  of  Taxodium  or  American  Cypress  — 
was  subsequently  observed  by  Douglas  in  Upper  California. 
"  This  tree,"  he  says,  "gives  the  mountains  a  most  peculiar,  I 
was  almost  going  to  say,  awful  appearance  —  something  which 
plainly  tells  that  we  are  not  in  Europe.  I  have  repeatedly 
measured  specimens  of  this  tree,  two  hundred  and  seventy 
feet  long,  and  thirty-two  feet  round  at  three  feet  above  the 
ground.  Some  few  I  saw  upwards  of  three  hundred  feet 
high."  1     Truly  these  are  trees, 

"  to  equal  which  the  tallest  pine, 
Hewn  on  Norwegian  hills,  to  be  the  mast 
Of  some  great  ammiral,  were  but  a  wand." 

This  naturally  brings  us  to  the  proper  North  American  Cy- 
press (Taxodium  distichuni)  ;  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
remarkable  trees  of  our  southern  States,  but  which  appears 
to  attain  its  most  ample  development  in  the  tierras  templadas 
of  Mexico.  Bartram  gives  a  characteristic  description  of  the 
tree. 

"  It  generally  grows  in  the  water,  or  in  low  flat  lands,  near 
the  banks  of  great  rivers  and  lakes,  that  are  covered  a  great 
part  of  the  year  with  two  or  three  feet  depth  of  water  ;  and 
that  part  of  the  trunk  which  is  subject  to  be  under  water, 
and  four  or  five  feet  higher  up,  is  greatly  enlarged  by  prodi- 
gious buttresses,  or  pilasters,  which  in  full  grown  trees  pro- 
ject out  on  every  side  to  such  a  distance  that  several  men 
might  easily  hide  themselves  in  the  hollows  between.  Each 
pilaster  terminates  under  ground  in  a  very  large,  strong, 
serpentine  root,  which  strikes  off  and  branches  every  way 
just  under  the  surface  of  the  earth ;  and  from  these  roots 
grow  woody  cones,  called  Cypress-knees,  four,  five,  and  six 
feet  high,  and  from  six  to  eighteen  inches  and  two  feet  in 
diameter  at   their  bases.      The  larger  ones  are  hollow,  and 

1  Journal  of  Douglas's  second  visit  to  the  Columbia,  etc.,  in  Hooker, 
"  Compan.  to  Bot.  Mag.,"  ii.  p.  150. 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  113 

serve  very  well  for  bee-hives !  A  small  space  of  the  tree  it- 
self is  hollow,  nearly  as  high  as  the  buttresses  already  men- 
tioned. From  this  place  the  tree,  as  it  were,  takes  another 
beginning,  forming  a  great,  straight  column,  eighty  or  ninety 
feet  high  ;  when  it  divides  every  way  around  into  an  exten- 
sive, flat,  horizontal  top,  like  an  umbrella,  where  eagles  have 
their  secure  nests,  and  cranes  and  storks  their  temporary  rest- 
ing-places. And  what  adds  to  the  magnificence  of  their  ap- 
pearance is  the  streamers  of  long  moss  that  hang  from  the 
lofty  limbs,  and  float  in  the  winds."  (Bartram's  "Travels 
through  Carolina,  Georgia,  etc.,"  p.  91.) 

In  favorable  situations,  the  tree  sometimes  attains  the 
height  of  one  hundred  and  twenty,  or  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet,  and  a  circumference  of  from  twenty  to  forty  feet,  when 
measured  quite  above  the  singular  dilated  base.  This  is 
scarcely  exceeded  by  the  largest  of  the  celebrated  Cypresses 
in  the  gardens  of  Chapultepec,  at  Mexico,  called  the  "  Cypress 
of  Montezuma,"  and  which  was  already  a  remarkable  tree  in 
the  palmy  days  of  that  unfortunate  monarch,  three  and  a 
half  centuries  ago.  The  girth  of  its  trunk  is  forty-one  feet, 
according  to  Mr.  Ward,1  or  about  forty-five,  according  to  Mr. 
Exter ;  but  its  height  is  so  great  in  proportion,  that  the 
whole  mass  appears  light  and  graceful. 

But  this  tree  is  greatly  surpassed  by  the  famous  "  Ahue- 
huete  "  (the  Mexican  name  for  the  species)  of  the  village  of 
Atlisco,  in  the  intendancy  of  Puebla,  which  was  first  described 
by  Lorenzana  from  personal  observation.  The  worthy  Arch- 
bishop says  that  "the  cavity  of  the  trunk  "  — for  the  tree  is 
hollow  —  "  might  contain  twelve  or  thirteen  men  on  horse- 
back ;  and  that,  in  the  presence  of  the  most  illustrious  Arch- 
bishop of  Guatemala  and  the  Bishop  of  Puebla,  more  than  a 
hundred  boys  entered  it."  2  The  girth  of  the  trunk,  according 
to  Humboldt,  is  a  little  over  twenty-three  metres,  or  seventy- 
six  English  feet,  and  the  diameter  of  the  cavity  about  sixteen 
feet.3 

1  "  Travels  in  Mexico,"  ii.  p.  230. 

2  Note  to  the  Third  Despatch  of  Cortes.  This  note  is  not  found  in 
Mr.  Folsom's  translation. 

3  "  Essai  Polit.  Nouv.  Esp.,"  ed.  2,  ii.  p.  54. 


114  ESSA  YS. 

Still  more  gigantic  —  the  Nestor  of  the  race,  if  not  of  the 
whole  vegetable  kingdom  —  is  the  Cypress  which  stands  in 
the  churchyard  of  the  village  of  Santa  Maria  del  Tide,  in  the 
intendancy  of  Oaxaca,  two  and  a  half  leagues  east  of  that 
city,  on  the  road  to  Guatemala  by  the  way  of  Tehuantepec. 
In  its  neighborhood  there  are  five  or  six  other  trees  of  the 
kind,  which  are  nearly  as  large  as  the  "  Cypress  of  Monte- 
zuma," but  which  this  one  as  much  surpasses  as  that  does 
the  ordinary  denizens  of  the  forest.  We  possess  three  inde- 
pendent measurements  of  this  enormous  trunk.  The  first  is 
that  given  by  Humboldt,  who  states,  probably  on  the  author- 
ity of  his  informant,  M.  Anza,  that  the  trunk  is  thirty-six 
metres  (one  hundred  and  eighteen  English  feet)  in  circum- 
ference. In  the  year  1827,  Mr.  Poinsett,  then  our  minister 
at  the  court  of  Mexico,  transmitted  to  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  at  Philadelphia  a  cord  which  represented  the 
exact  circumference  of  this  tree.  Its  extraordinary  length 
naturally  excited  some  doubts  as  to  the  correctness  of  the 
measurement ;  and  immediate  application  was  made  to  Mr. 
Poinsett  for  further  particulars.  He  accordingly  transmitted 
a  communication  from  Mr.  Exter,  an  English  traveler  who  had 
just  returned  from  Oaxaca,  and  who  had  carefully  examined 
the  tree  in  question.  Mr.  Exter's  letter  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished in  Loudon's  "Magazine  of  Natural  History";  and  a 
French  translation,  accompanied  by  some  interesting  com- 
ments by  the  younger  De  Candolle,  appeared  in  the  "Biblio- 
theque  Universelle"  for  1831.1  According  to  Mr.  Exter's 
measurement,  the  trunk  is  forty-six  varas  —  one  hundred 
and  twenty-two  English  feet  —  in  circumference  ;  which  is 
nearly  in  accordance  with  Humboldt's  account.  In  neither 
case  is  the  height  at  which  the  trunk  was  measured  expressly 
mentioned.  But  this  point  has  been  duly  attended  to  by  a 
recent  scientific  observer,  M.  Galeotti,  who  visited  this  cele- 
brated tree  in  1839  and  in  1840,  and  whose  careful  measure- 
ment gives  to  the  trunk  the  circumference  of  one  hundred 
and  five  French  (equal  to  one  hundred  and   twelve  English) 

1  Tom.  xlvi.,  p.  387. 


THE   LONGEVITY   OF   TREES.  115 

feet,  at  the  height  of  four  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  soil.1 
The  previous  measurements,  therefore,  were  taken  somewhat 
nearer  the  base.  The  tree  as  yet  shows  no  signs  of  decay, 
although  it  bears  less  foliage  in  proportion  to  its  size  than 
its  younger  fellows.  But  we  find  no  authority  for  Mr.  Exter's 
statement,  that  this  tree  was  mentioned  by  Cortes,  and  that 
its  shade  once  afforded  shelter  to  his  whole  European  army. 
Perhaps  he  had  in  some  way  confounded  it  in  his  memory 
with  a  Cypress  which  the  Conquistador  passed  on  the  march 
to  Mexico,  and  which  is  still  traditionally  associated  with 
his  name.2 

Mr.  Exter  reports,  and  the  observations  of  recent  travelers 
to  some  extent  confirm  the  statement,  that  there  are  Cypresses 
near  the  ruins  of  Palenque,  equal  in  size  to  the  tree  at  Santa 
Maria  del  Tide.  If  this  be  so,  they  may  claim  a  much  higher 
antiquity  than  the  ruins  they  overshadow.  They  must  have 
witnessed  the  rise,  the  flourishing  existence,  the  decline,  and 
the  final  extinction  of  a  race  whose  whole  history  has  sunk 
into  oblivion ;  while  they  are  still  alive. 

By  what  means  can  we  ascertain  the  age  of  large  Cypress- 
trees  ?  Some  years  since,  when  Professor  Alphonse  De  Can- 
dolle  —  the  son  and  worthy  successor  of  the  botanist  who  has 
rendered  that  name  illustrious  —  attempted  to  answer  this 
question,  the  only  evidence  within  his  reach  was  drawn  from 
the  rate  at  which  trees  of  the  kind  had  grown  in  France  during 
half  a  century.  He  inferred  that  the  American  Cypress,  in 
its  early  days,  increases  at  the  rate  of  about  a  foot  in  diameter 
every  fifty  years  ;  and  the  estimate,  although  surely  much  too 
low  for  trees  planted  in  favorable  open  situations  (which  have 
even  been  known  to  add  annually  an  inch  to  their  diameter 
for  a  series  of  years,  both  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States ). 
is  yet  quite  as  high  as  our  own  observations  will  allow  for 
those  which  grow  in  their  native  forests.  This  rate  would 
give  to  the  Cypress  of  Montezuma  the  age  of  about  seven  cen- 
turies, and  would  render  that  at  Oaxaca  scarcely  coeval  with 

1  "  Bulletin  de  l'Acad.  Roy.  des  Sciences  de  Bruxelles,"  1843,  torn.  x. 
p.  123. 

2  See  Prescott's  "  History  of  the  Conquest,"  i.  p.  401. 


116  ESSA  YS. 

the  Christian  era.  Perhaps  this  is  as  great  an  age  as  we  are 
warranted  in  assuming  for  the  Cypress  of  Montezuma ;  but 
old  trunks  increase  so  much  the  more  slowly  as  they  advance 
in  age,  that  we  must  certainly  assign  a  vastly  higher  antiquity 
to  the  trees  of  Atlisco  and  Santa  Maria  del  Tule.  Yet  far 
the  most  important  element  in  the  calculation  is  wanting ; 
namely,  the  actual  present  rate  of  growth  of  these  monstrous 
trunks,  or  of  other  old  trees  of  the  same  species.  In  default 
of  this  essential  evidence,  De  Candolle  has  instituted  a  com- 
parison between  these  trees  and  the  famous  Baobabs  of  Sen- 
egal, upon  which  we  place  no  great  reliance,  but  from  which 
he  infers  that  the  great  Cypress  of  Santa  Maria  del  Tule,  if 
really  the  growth  of  a  single  trunk,  is  from  four  to  six  thou- 
sand years  old,  and  perhaps  dates  its  existence  as  far  back  as 
the  actual  creation  of  the  world.1 

We  trust  that  the  next  intelligent  traveler  who  visits  this 
most  ancient  living  monument,  or  any  other  Cypress  of  re- 
markable size,  will  not  fail  to  complete  the  evidence  that  is 
needed,  as  the  full  solution  of  this  curious  problem  may  throw 
light  upon  some  interesting  questions  respecting  the  physical 
history  of  the  world.  One  or  more  lateral  incisions,  not  at 
all  endangering  the  existence  of  the  tree,  would  at  once  reveal 
its  actual  growth  for  the  last  few  centuries.  And  if  made  at 
proper  points,  and  carried  to  a  sufficient  depth,  they  might 
enable  the  judicious  operator  to  disprove  or  confirm  the  sur- 
mise, that  this  huge  bole  may  consist  of  the  trunks  of  two  or 
three  original  trees,  long  since  united  and  blended  into  one. 
This  conjecture  is  by  no  means  very  improbable,  although 
there  is  nothing  in  the  external  appearance  of  the  trunk  to 
confirm  it.2 

Meanwhile,  the  Cypresses  of  our  southern  States,  although 
of  more  moderate  dimensions,  afford  important  assistance  in 
this  inquiry.     It   is   generally  known  that  old  trees  of  the 

1  Alphonse  De  Candolle,  in  "  Bibl.  Univ.,"  xlvi.  p.  393.  Aug.  Pyr.  De 
Candolle,  «  Phys.  Veg.,"  ii.  p.  1000. 

2  In  opposition  to  the  remark  of  M.  Anza,  cited  by  Humboldt  (Essai 
Polit.,  the  Engl,  transl.,  ii.  p.  190),  we  may  adduce  the  account  of  Mr. 
Exter,  and  the  negative  testimony  of  M.  Galeotti. 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  117 

kind  grow  very  slowly ;  but  there  are  no  accounts  on  record, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  respecting  their  rate  of  growth.  Our 
own  observations,  though  not  so  extended  as  could  be  wished, 
incline  us  to  adopt  the  standard  which  De  Candolle  assumed 
for  the  Yew ;  namely,  the  twelfth  of  an  inch  for  the  annual 
increase  of  old  Cypresses  in  diameter,  when  growing  in  their 
native  forests.  But  we  would  only  apply  this  rule  to  trunks 
of  large  size,  and  with  all  the  precautions  that  have  already 
been  mentioned  ;  for  the  Cypress  grows,  or  at  least  may  grow, 
quite  rapidly  for  the  first  century  or  two ;  but  when  old,  it 
appears  to  increase  quite  as  slowly  as  the  Yew.  We  have 
counted  sixty  layers  of  the  wood  in  the  space  of  an  inch.  A 
fine  section  of  a  Cypress-trunk,  which  grew  near  Wilmington, 
in  North  Carolina,  now  lies  before  us,  which,  on  an  average 
radius  of  twenty-seven  inches,  or  diameter  of  fifty-four  inches, 
exhibits  six  hundred  and  seventy  annual  layers.  It  has, 
therefore,  grown  throughout  at  the  average  rate  of  less  than 
the  twenty-fourth  of  an  inch  a  year,  measured  on  the  radius, 
or  the  twelfth  of  an  inch  on  the  diameter.  The  trunk  was 
thirteen  inches  in  diameter  at  the  expiration  of  its  first  cen- 
tury, and  twenty-seven  inches  about  the  close  of  the  second ; 
it  added  seven  inches  to  its  diameter  during  the  third  century, 
and  a  nearly  equal  amount  during  the  fourth ;  and  for  the 
remaining  three  hundred  and  seventy  years,  it  grew  at  a  still 
slower,  but,  on  the  whole,  nearly  equable  rate. 

Now  it  is  deemed  a  safe  mode,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
to  employ  the  rate  of  growth  deduced  from  comparatively 
young  trees  for  the  determination  of  the  age  of  larger  and 
older  trunks  of  the  same  species.  Not  only  is  our  estimate, 
in  all  such  cases,  likely  to  fall  below  the  truth,  but  the  larger 
the  trunk  in  question  the  less  the  danger  of  exaggeration. 
Let  us  apply  to  the  Mexican  Cypresses  the  data  furnished 
by  our  Wilmington  tree.  If  the  Cypress  of  Montezuma  has 
grown,  on  the  average,  even  a  little  more  rapidly  than  the 
trunk  before  us,  —  has  increased  in  diameter  at  the  mean  rate 
of  an  inch  in  twelve  years,  —  it  must  now  be  fully  two  thou- 
sand years  old.  But  if  we  suppose  it  to  have  grown  at  twelve 
times  this  rate  (which  is  the  maximum  for  young  Cypresses 


118  ESSAYS. 

under  the  most  favorable  circumstances)  during  the  whole 
of  the  first  century,  we  should  thereby  reduce  the  estimated 
age  to  a  thousand  years.  By  the  same  computation,  the  Cy- 
press at  Atlisco  would  be  3480  years  old. ;  or  2390  years,  if 
we  allow  it  the  maximum  rate  of  growth  for  the  first  century. 
So,  likewise,  the  great  Cypress  at  Santa  Maria  del  Tule  would 
be  5124  years  of  age,  or  4024  years,  with  the  aforesaid  de- 
duction. The  latter  accords  perfectly  with  De  Candolle's 
minimum  estimate ;  and  it  is  the  lowest  age  that,  in  the  pres- 
ent state  of  our  knowledge,  can  possibly  be  assigned  to  this 
prodigious  tree,  upon  the  supposition  that  its  trunk  is  really 
single. 

We  are  obliged  to  pass  unnoticed  those  trees  of  unknown 
species,  but  of  surprising  size,  which  the  learned  and  enthu- 
siastic Professor  Martius  visited  in  the  interminable  woods 
that  border  the  Amazon,  and  of  which  he  has  recently  pub- 
lished such  a  spirited  account.1  Their  trunks  were  so  huge 
that  the  outstretched  arms  of  fifteen  men  were  required  to 
grasp  them ;  and  so  lofty,  as  to  mock  every  effort  for  obtain- 
ing even  a  leaf  or  flower,  by  which  the  species  might  be  de- 
termined. As  to  their  age,  Martius  offers  only  a  conjectural 
estimate. 

The  Baobab,  or  Monkey-Bread  (Adansonia  digitata),  of 
Senegal  and  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  has  long  afforded 
the  most  celebrated  instances  of  vegetable  longevity.  The 
tree  is  remarkable  for  the  small  height  which  it  attains,  com- 
pared with  the  diameter  of  the  trunk  or  the  length  of  its 
branches.  Trunks  which  are  seventy  or  eighty  feet  in  cir- 
cumference rise  to  the  height  of  only  ten  or  twelve  feet,  when 
they  divide  into  a  great  number  of  extremely  large  branches, 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  length,  which,  spreading  widely  in  every 
direction,  form  a  hemisphere  or  hillock  of  verdure,  perhaps 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  only  seventy  in 
elevation.  To  this  peculiarity,  rather  than  to  the  nature  of 
the  wood,  which  is  light  and  soft,  the  great  longevity  of  the 
tree  is  probably  owing,  its  form  opposing  an  effectual  resist- 

1  "  Flora  Brasiliensis,"  Tab.  Physiog.,  ix.  ;  "  Arbores  ante  Christum 
natum  enatae." 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF  TREES.  119 

ance  to  the  tempests  which  would  overthrow  ordinary  trees. 
Its  roots  spread  in  a  similar  manner  beneath  the  soil.     When 
laid  bare  by  a  torrent  that  has  washed  away  the  earth,  they 
have  been  traced  to  a  distance  of  more  than  a  hundred  feet 
without  reaching  their  extremity.     The  history  of  these  Bao- 
babs, possibly  of  the  very  trees  which  Adanson's  account  has 
rendered  famous,  reaches  back  to  the  discovery  of  that  part 
of  the  African   coast,  and   of  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  by 
Cadamosto,  in  1455  ;  who,  in  his  narrative,  mentions  the  sin- 
gular disproportion  between  the  height  and  the  girth  of  these 
trees.1     But  they  were   first  fully  described  by  the  French 
naturalist  Adanson,  who  examined  them  about  a  century  ago. 
The  largest  trunks  that  Adanson  measured  were  eighty-five 
feet  in  circumference,  or  twenty-seven  in  diameter.     Golberry 
is  said  to  have  measured  one  that  was  over  a  hundred  feet  in 
girth.     Quite  recently,  M.  Perrottet  has  met  with  many  Bao- 
babs in  Senegambia,  varying  from   sixty  to  ninety  feet  in  cir- 
cumference, yet  still  in  a  green  old  age,  and  showing  no  signs 
of  decrepitude.     There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  respecting 
the   prodigious   size  which  these   trees   attain  ;  and  there   is 
great   reason  to  believe  that  they  are  among  the  oldest  deni- 
zens  of  our  planet.     Indeed,  their  age  is  plausibly  estimated 
at  five  or  six  thousand  years.     And  the  younger  De  Candolle 
has  placed  so  much  confidence  in  this  estimate  that  he  has 
employed  it  as  a  standard  of  comparison  in  the  case  of  the 
Mexican   Cypresses  which  we  have  just  considered.     If  the 
evidence  were  really  as  direct  as  is  generally  thought,  we  could 
interpose  no  serious  objection  to  such  a  conclusion.     But  a 
critical  examination  proves  that  the  whole  account  given  by 
recent    writers,    upon    Adanson's    authority,  is    strangely   at 
variance  with  his  own  statements. 

The  current  narrative  is  substantially  and  briefly  as  fol- 
lows:—that  Adanson  observed,  at  the  Madelaine  Islands, 
near  Cape    de    Verde,  some    Baobab-trees  of   thirty  feet  in 

i  "Arbores  vero  ibi  sunt  tantse  magnitudmis,  ut  earum  ambitus  sit 
pedum  xvii,  licet  eminentia  altitudinis  non  quadret  magnitudini  ;  non 
enim  altius  tolluntur  quam  pedes  xx,"  etc.  (A.  Cadamusti,  Navig.,  c. 
xliii.,  in  Grynaeus,  Nov.  Orb.,  p.  45.) 


120  ESSAYS. 

diameter,  upon  the  trunks  of  whieh  he  found  inscriptions  that 
had  been  made  by  former  visitors  three  centuries  before  ; 
that,  by  cutting  through  three  hundred  annual  layers,  he  dis- 
covered the  vestiges  of  these  inscriptions  upon  the  wood,  thus 
proving  that  they  were  actually  made  at  the  date  assigned  ; 
that,  by  measuring  the  thickness  of  these  layers,  he  ascer- 
tained the  actual  increase  of  the  trunk  during  the  last  three 
centuries ;  that,  having  thus  obtained  the  rate  of  growth  in 
old  age,  and  having,  by  actual  inspection  of  young  trunks, 
learned  the  rate  of  growth  during  the  first  hundred  years,  he 
deduced  from  these  combined  data  the  almost  inevitable  con- 
clusion, that  the  trees  in  question  were  five  or  six  thousand 
years  old.1 

Let  us  compare  this  with  Adanson's  own  statements,  from 
which  it  purports  to  have  been  taken.  His  first  account, 
which  comprises  all  the  principal  facts  in  the  case,  is  given 
in  the  "  Voyage  au  Senegal,"  prefixed  to  his  volume  on  nat- 
ural history  of  that  country,  which  was  published  soon  after 
his  return  to  France,  in  1753.  Adanson  simply  relates,  that, 
on  his  visit  to  the  Madelaine  Islands,  he  found  Baobab-trees 
of  five  or  six  feet  in  diameter,  which  bore  European  names 
and  dates,  deeply  engraven  upon  the  bark.  Two  of  these  he 
took  the  trouble  to  renew,  one  of  which  was  dated  in  the  fif- 
teenth, the  other  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  characters 
were  about  six  inches  in  length,  and  as  in  breadth  they  occu- 
pied but  a  small  part  of  the  circumference  of  the  trunk, 
Adanson  reasonably  inferred  that  they  were  not  engraven  in 
the  early  youth  of  these  trees.  He  had  previously  seen,  on 
the  island  of  Senegal,  trees  of  the  kind,  which  were  sixty- 
three  and  sixty-five  feet  in  circumference  ;  but  he  does  not 
intimate  that  he  inspected  the  laj^ers  of  wood  in  any  case. 
He  merely  remarks  that  these  inscriptions  might  furnish 
some  evidence  respecting  the  age  which  Baobabs  sometimes 
attained  ;  "  For,"  says  he,  "  if  we  suppose  that  the  inscriptions 
were  engraven  even  in  the  early  years  of  these  trees,  and  that 

1  See  Alphonse  De  Candolle,  in  "  Bibl.  Univ.,"  xlvi.  p.  389.  (Aug. 
Pyr.  De  Candolle,  Phys.  Veg.,  ii.  p.  1003.  Moquin-Tandon,  Teratol.  Veg., 
p.  107.) 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  121 

they  have  grown  to  six  feet  in  diameter  in  the  course  of  two 
centuries,  we  may  calculate  how  many  centuries  they  would 
require  to  attain  the  full  diameter  of  twenty-five  feet."  :  Soon 
afterwards,  Adanson  communicated  to  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Paris  a  full  account  of  the  Baobab ;  which  was 
published  in  the  volume  of  Memoirs  of  that  society  for  the 
year  1761 ;  and,  lastly,  he  wrote  the  article  "  Baobab  "  for  the 
supplement  to  the  great  French  Encyclopaedia,  published  in 
the  year  17 7G.  These  accounts,  although  more  detailed,  em- 
body no  essential  additions  to  what  has  already  been  given. 
He  says  that  the  trees  in  question  were  two  in  number,  upon 
the  bark  of  which  the  names  of  Europeans  were*  engraved, 
with  dates,  some  posterior  to  the  year  1600  ;  and  others,  as 
far  back  as  1555,  were  probably  the  work  of  those  who  ac- 
companied Thevet,  who,  in  his  voyage  to  antarctic  hmds,  saw 
some  of  these  trees  that  same  year.2  Some  of  the  dates  ap- 
peared to  be  anterior  to  1500,  but  these  were  somewhat  equiv- 
ocal. Neglecting,  therefore,  the  indistinct  dates  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  continues  Adanson,  and  even  allowing  that 
the  inscriptions  were  made  when  the  trees  were  very  young, 
which  is  highly  improbable,  as  they  occupied  less  than  an 
eighth  of  the  entire  circumference,  it  is  evident,  that,  if  the 
Baobab  has  attained  six  feet  in  diameter  between  1555  and 
1749,  that  is,  in  two  hundred  years,  it  would  require  more 
than  eight  centuries  to  attain  the  diameter  of  twentv-five  feet, 
supposing  the  growth  to  continue  at  a  uniform  rate.  But 
Adanson  goes  on  to  say  that  trees  grow  the  more  slowly  as 
they  advance   in   age ;    so  that   such  an   estimate  would  fall 

1  "Voyage  au  Senegal,"  Paris,  1757,  p.  66. 

2  "  Aupres  du  promontoire  Verd,  y  a  trois  petites  isles  prochaines  de 
terre  ferine,  autres  que  celles,  que  nous  appellos  Isles  de  Cap  Verd,  dont 
nous  parlerons  cy  apres,  assez  belles,  pour  les  beaux  arbres,  qu  tilts 
produissent  ;  toutesfois  elles  ne  sont  habite'es.  ...  En  l'une  de  ces  isles 
se  trouve  un  arbre,  lequel  porte  feuilles  semblables  a  celles  de  noz 
figuiers  ;  le  fruit  est  log  de  deux  pieds  ou  enviro,  et  gros  en  proportion, 
etc.  (Thevet,  "Singularity  de  la  France  Antarctique  ;  "  Anvers,  1558, 
p.  18.)  Thevet  proceeds  to  describe  the  fruit,  its  edible  character,  its 
furnishing  food  for  monkeys,  etc.,  so  as  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to  its  bring 
a  Baobab. 


122  ESSAYS. 

below  the  truth.  As  to  its  rate  of  growth  when  young,  he 
states  that  the  tree  acquires  the  diameter  of  an  inch  or  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  the  first  year ;  the  diameter  of  a  foot  in  ten 
years,  and  about  a  foot  and  a  half  in  thirty  years  ;  but  so  far 
from  having  extended  these  data,  and  employed  them  in  the 
manner  which  is  attributed  to  him,  he  says,  that,  although  it 
might  be  desirable  thus  to  employ  them,  a  sound  geometry 
teaches  that  they  are  quite  insufficient  for  the  purpose. 
Hence,  instead  of  attempting  any  precise  determination,  he 
merely  offers  the  probable  conjecture,  that  these  largest 
Baobabs  may  have  been  in  existence  several  thousand  years, 
or  nearly  -from  the  period  of  the  universal  deluge  ;  which 
would  give  them  a  claim  to  be  considered  the  most  ancient 
living  monuments  in  the  world.1 

We  cannot  learn  that  Adanson  ever  made  any  further 
statements  upon  the  subject ;  and,  as  he  never  revisited  the 
African  coast,  he  cannot  have  collected  additional  facts.  His 
original  writings  plainly  show  that  he  never  pretended  to 
have  obtained  the  data  and  made  the  estimates  which  have 
so  lonq;  been  attributed  to  him.  To  whom  belongs  the  credit 
of  falsifying  his  testimony  we  are  unable  to  ascertain,  as  the 
authors  above  mentioned  do  not  cite  their  immediate  author- 
ity ;  —  perhaps  to  one  M.  Duchesne,  whose  name  the  elder 
De  Candolle  has  casually  alluded  to,  as  having  drawn  up  a 
table,  exhibiting  the  diameter  of  the  Baobab  at  different 
periods,  doubtless  upon  the  very  plan  that  Adanson  pointed 
out  and  condemned.  We  are  only  surprised  that  such  accu- 
rate and  judicious  writers  as  the  De  Candolles,  father  and 
son,  should  have  relied  upon  second-hand  authorities  in  any 
case  where  the  originals  were  accessible,  and  especially  in 
what  they  term  "  the  most  celebrated  case  of  extreme  longevity 
that  has  yet  been  observed  with  precision.'* 2 

1  "Mem.  Acad.  Sciences,"  1761,  p.  231  ;  and  "Encycl.  Suppl.,"  vol. 
i.  p.  798. 

2  A  passage  which  has  met  our  eye  in  Mirbel's  "  Ele'mens  de  Physiolo- 
gic Ve'ge'tale,"  i.  p.  116,  shows  that  no  such  data  as  those  which  have 
been,  as  we  suppose,  falsely  assumed,  were  known  to  that  author  down 
to  the  year  1815. 


THE   LONGEVITY  OF   TREES.  123 

We  close  our  enumeration,  already  too  protracted,  with  a 
case  of  longevity,  perhaps  transcending  that  of  the  oldest 
Baobabs,  or  of  the  Mexican  Cypresses ;  namely,  the  famous 
Dragon-tree  (Draccena  Draco)  of  the  city  of  Orotava,  in 
Teneriffe.  This  tree  has  been  visited  by  many  competent 
observers ;  and  among  others,  by  that  prince  of  scientific 
travelers,  the  veteran  Humboldt,  who  has  given  a  good  figure; 
of  it,  as  it  appeared  about  seventy  years  ago,  from  a  drawing 
made  by  M.  Ozonne  in  1776.  A  later  and  much  fuller  ac- 
count was  published  about  twenty  years  since,  by  M.  Bert  he- 
lot,1 who  has  assiduously  devoted  many  years  to  the  study  of 
the  civil  and  natural  history  of  the  Canary  Islands ;  and  a 
fine  figure  of  the  mutilated  trunk,  as  it  appeared  after  the 
terrible  storm  of  the  21st  of  July,  1819,  forms  one  of  the 
most  striking  pictorial  illustrations  of  that  elaborate  and  ex- 
cellent work,  the  "  Histoire  Naturelle  des  lies  Canaries,"  by 
P.  Barker  Webb,  Esq.,  and  M.  Berthelot. 

The  trunk  is  by  no  means  equal  in  size  to  some  of  the  trees 
already  noticed.  It  is  only  fifty  feet  in  girth  at  the  base,  and 
not  more  than  sixty  or  seventy  in  elevation.  But,  at  the  dis- 
covery of  Teneriffe  in  1402,  nearly  four  and  a  half  centuries 
ago,  this  Dragon-tree  was  nearly  as  large  as  at  the  present 
day,  and  had  been  immemorially  an  object  of  veneration 
among  the  Guanches.  After  the  conquest,  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  trunk  was  employed  as  a  boundary  in 
dividing  the  lands,  and  as  such  is  mentioned  in  ancient  docu- 
ments. It  had  changed  very  little  since  that  period,  except 
that  the  centre  had  been  hollowed  by  slow  decay,  until  the 
summer  of  1819,  when  a  third  of  its  spreading  top  was  carried 
away  by  a  tempest.  But  it  still  continues  to  vegetate ;  and 
its  remaining  branches  are  still  annually  crowned,  —  as  they 
have  been  each  returning  autumn,  perhaps  for  hundreds  of 
centuries,  with  its  beautiful  clusters  of  white,  lily-like  blos- 
soms,—  emblems  of  "the  eternal  youth  of  nature." 

The  Dragon-tree,  like  its  allies  the  Palms,  and  unlike 
ordinary  trees,  does  not  increase  in  diameter  by  annual  con- 
centric layers.  The  usual  means  of  investigation  are  here  of 
1  In  "  Nova  Acta  Acad.  Nat.  Cur.,"  xiii.,  1827,  p.  781. 


124  ESSAYS. 

no  account ;  and,  apart  from  historic  evidence,  we  can  only 
form  a  somewhat  conjectural  estimate  of  the  age  of  this  cele- 
brated trunk,  by  a  comparison  with  young  trees  of  the  same 
species,  which  are  known  to  grow  with  extreme  slowness. 
M.  Berthelot,  who  has  attempted  the  comparison  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances,  —  having  lived  many  years  upon 
the  island,  —  declares  that  the  calculations  which  he  has 
made,  upon  the  supposition  that  the  trunk  has  increased  in 
size  even  at  the  rate  of  young  Dragon-trees  up  to  within  the 
last  eight  hundred  or  one  thousand  years,  have  more  than 
once  confounded  his  imagination.  We  cannot  but  assign  the 
very  highest  antiquity  to  a  tree  like  this,  which  the  storms 
and  casualties  of  four  centuries  have  scarcely  changed. 

Upon  the  whole,  we  cannot  resist  the  conclusion,  that  many 
trees  have  far  survived  what  we  are  accustomed  to  consider 
their  habitual  duration  ;  that  even  in  Europe,  where  man  has 
so  often  and  so  extensively  changed  the  face  of  the  soil,  as 
his  wants  or  caprices  have  dictated,  some  trees,  favored  by 
fortune,  have  escaped  destruction  for  at  least  one  or  two  thou- 
sand years ;  while  in  other,  and  particularly  in  some  tropical 
countries,  either  on  account  of  a  more  favorable  climate,  or 
because  they  have  been  more  respected,  or  haply  more  neg- 
lected, by  the  inhabitants,  a  few  may  with  strong  probability 
be  traced  back  to  twice  that  period ;  and,  perhaps,  almost  to 
that  epoch  which  the  monuments  both  of  history  and  geology 
seem  to  indicate  as  that  of  the  last  great  revolution  of  the 
earth's  surface.  After  making  every  reasonable  allowance 
for  errors  of  observation  and  too  sanguine  inference,  and 
assuming,  in  the  more  extraordinary  cases,  those  estimates 
which  give  minimum  results,  we  must  still  regard  some  of 
these  trees,  not  only  as  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  the  globe, 
but  as  more  ancient  than  any  human  monument,  —  as  exhib- 
iting a  living  antiquity,  compared  with  which  the  mouldering 
relics  of  the  earliest  Egyptian  civilization,  the  pyramids  them- 
selves, are  but  structures  of  yesterday. 


THE   FLORA  OF  JAPAN.1 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that,  notwithstanding  the  com- 
parative proximity  of  Japan  to  western  North  America, 
fewer  of  its  species  are  represented  there  than  in  far  distant 
Europe.  Also,  —  showing  that  this  difference  is  not  owing 
to  the  separation  by  an  ocean,  —  that  far  more  Japanese 
plants  are  represented  in  eastern  North  America  than  in 
either.  It  is,  indeed,  possible  that  my  much  better  knowledge 
of  American  botany  than  of  European  may  have  somewhat 
exaggerated  this  result  in  favor  of  Atlantic  North  America 
as  against  Europe,  but  it  could  not  as  against  western  North 

If  we  regard  the  identical  species  only,  in  the  several  floras, 
the  preponderance  is  equally  against  western  as  compared  with 
eastern  North  America,  but  is  more  in  favor  of  Europe.  For 
the  number  of  species  in  the  Japanese  column2  which  like- 
wise occur  in  western  North  America  is  about  120  ;  in  eastern 
North  America,  134 ;  in  Europe,  157. 

Of  the  580  Japanese  entries,  there  are  which  have  corre- 
sponding 

European  representatives,  a  little  above  0.48  per  cent. ;  ot 

identical  species,  0,27. 

Western  North  American  representatives,  about  0.37  per 
cent.  ;  of  identical  species,  0.20. 

i  Extract  from  the  concluding  part  of  a  «  Memoir  on  the  Botany  of 
Japan,  in  its  relations  to  that  of  North  America,  and  of  other  parts  of 
the  Northern  Temperate  Zone."  (Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Science,  new  series,  vi.     1859.) 

It  is  this  paper  which  fixed  the  attention  of  the  scientific  world  upon 
Professor  Gray  and  established  his  reputation  as  a  philosophical  natu- 

ralist.  —  C.  S.  S.  ,      , 

2  The  column  in  a  tabular  view  of  the  distribution  of  Japanese  plants 
and  their  nearest  allies  in  the  northern  temperate  zone. 


126 


ESS  A  YS. 


Eastern  North  American  representatives,  about  0.61  per 
cent. ;  of  identical  species,  0.23. 

So  geographical  continuity  favors  the  extension  of  identical 
species  ;  but  still  eastern  North  America  has  more  in  common 
with  Japan  than  western  North  America  has. 

The  relations  of  this  kind  between  the  floras  of  Japan  and 
of  Europe  are  obvious  enough ;  and  the  identical  species  are 
mostly  such  as  extend  continuously  —  as  they  readily  may  — 
throughout  Russian  Asia,  some  few  only  to  the  eastern  con- 
fines of  Europe,  but  most  of  them  to  its  western  borders.  To 
exhibit  more  distinctly  the  features  of  identity  between  the 
floras  of  Japan  and  of  North  America,  and  also  the  manner 
in  which  these  are  distributed  between  the  eastern  and  west- 
ern portions  of  our  continent,  —  after  excluding  those  spe- 
cies which  range  around  the  world  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
or  the  greater  part  of  it,  or  (which  is  nearly  the  same  thing 
in  the  present  view)  which  are  unknown  in  Europe,  —  I  will 
enumerate  the  remaining  peculiar  species  which  Japan  pos- 
sesses in  common  with  America:  — 


In  Japan. 

Anemone  Pennsylvanica 
(Coptis  asplenifolia  ?) 
(Trautvetteria  palmata) 
Caulophyllura       thalic- 

troides 
Diphylleia  cymosa 
Brasenia  peltata 
Geranium  erianthum 
Rhus  Toxicodendron 
Vitis  Labrusca  (Thunb.) 
Thermopsis  fabacea 
Prunus  Virginiana  ? 
Spiraea  betulaefolia 
Photinia   arbutifolia,  in 

Bonin. 
Pyrus  rivularis  ? 
Ribes  laxiflorum 
(Penthorum      sedoides, 

China) 
Cryptotsenia  Canadensis 
Heracleum  lanatum 


In  W.  N.  America. 

C.  asplenifolia 
T.  palmata 


(B.  peltata) 

G.  erianthum 

R.  Toxicodendron,  var. 

T.  fabacea 

S.  betulaefolia 

P.  arbutifolia 
P.  rivularis 
R.  laxiflorum 


H.  lanatum 


In  E.  N.  America. 

A.  Pennsylvanica 

T.  palmata 

C.  thalictroides 

D.  cymosa 

B.  peltata 

R.  Toxicodendron 
V.  Labrusca 

P.  Virginiana 
S.  betulaefolia 


P.  sedoides 
C.  Canadensis 
H.  lanatum 


THE   FLORA    OF  JAPAN. 


127 


(Archemora  rigida  ?) 

A.  rigida 

(Archangeliea  Gmelini) 

A.  Gmelini 

A.  Gmelini 

Cymopterus  littoralis  ? 

C.  littoralis 

Osmorrhiza  longistylis 

O.  longistylis 

0.  longistylis 

Echinopanax  horridus 

E.  horridus 

Aralia  quinquefolia 

A.  quinquefolia 

Cornus  Canadensis 

C.  Canadensis 

C.  Canadensis 

Viburnam  plicatum 

V.  plicatum  (lantanoides) 

^Achillea  Sibirica 

*A.  Sibirica 

*  Artemisia  borealis 

*A.  borealis 

*A.  borealis 

Vaccininm  macrocarpon 

V.  macrocarpon 

V.  macrocarpon 

Menziesia  ferruginea 

M.  ferruginea 

M.  ferruginea 

(Boschniakia  glabra  ?) 

B.  glabra 

*Pleurogyne  rotata 

*P.  rotata 

*P.  rotata 

(Asarum  Canadense  ?) 

A.  Canadense 

*Polygonum  Bistorta 

P.  Bistorta 

Rumex  persicarioides 

R.  persicarioides 

R.  persicarioides 

Liparis  liliifolia 

L.  liliifolia 

Pogonia  ophioglossoides 

P.  ophioglossoides 

Iris  setosa 

*I.  setosa 

Trillium  erectum,  var. 

T.  erectum 

(Smilacina  trifolia) 

S.  trifolia 

Polygonatum  giganteum 

P.  giganteum 

(Streptopus  roseus) 

S.  roseus 

S.  roseus 

Veratnm  viride 

V.  viride 

V.  viride 

Juncus  xiphioides 

J.  xiphioides 

(Cyperus  Iria) 

C.  Iria 

Carex  rostrata 

C.  rostrata 

Carex  stipata 

C.  stipata 

C.  stipata 

Carex  macrocephala 

C.  macrocephala 

Sporobolus  elongatus 

S.  elongatus 

S.  elongatus 

Agrostis  scabra 

A.  scabra 

A.  scabra 

Festuca  pauciflora 

F.  pauciflora 

Adiantum  pedatum 

A.  pedatum 

A.  pedatum 

Onoclea  sensibilis 

O.  sensibilis 

Osmunda  cinnamomea 

0.  cinnamomea 

Lycopodium  lucidulum 

L.  lucidulum 

(Lycopodium  dendroi- 

deum) 

L.  dendroideum 

L.  dendroideum 

The  names  inclosed  in  parentheses  are  of  species  which  I 
have  not  seen  from  Japan :  some  of  them  inhabit  the  adjacent 
mainland  ;  some  are  imperfectly  identified.  Those  marked  * 
are  high  northern  species  in  America. 

Of  these  fifty-six  extra-European  species,  thirty  five  inhabit 


128  ESS  A  YS. 

western,  and  forty-one  eastern  North  America.  And  fifteen 
are  western  and  not  eastern  ;  twenty-one  eastern  and  not 
western  ;  and  twenty  common  to  both  sides  of  the  continent. 
Eight  or  ten  of  these  fifty-six  species  extend  eastward  into 
the  interior  of  Asia. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  only  species  which  I  can  mention 
as  truly  indigenous  both  to  Japan  and  to  Europe,  but  not 
recorded  as  ranging  through  Asia,  are  :  — 

Euonymus  hitifolius,  Valeriana  dioica,  Ptjrola  media, 
Fagus  sylvatica,  Streptopus  amplexif alius,  Blechnum  spi- 
cant,  Athyrium  fontanum. 

Two  of  these  species  extend  across  the  northern  part  of  the 
American  continent  and  on  to  the  Asiatic ;  another  occurs  on 
the  northwest  coast  of  America ;  and  another,  the  Fagus,  is 
represented  in  eastern  America  by  a  too  closely  related  spe- 
cies. It  is  noteworthy  that  not  one  of  these  seven  plants  is 
of  a  peculiarly  European  genus,  or  even  a  Europseo-Siberian 
genus ;  while  of  the  fifty-six  species  of  the  Americo- Japanese 
region  wanting  in  Europe,  twenty  are  of  the  extra-European 
genera,  seventeen  are  of  genera  restricted  to  the  North 
American,  east  Asian,  and  Himalayan  regions  (except  that 
Brasenia  has  wandered  to  Australia)  ;  fourteen  of  the  genera 
(most  of  them  monotypic)  are  peculiar  to  America  and  Japan 
or  the  districts  immediately  adjacent ;  one  is  peculiar  to  our 
northwest  coast  and  Japan  ;  and  eight  are  monotypic  genera 
wholly  peculiar  (Brasenia  excepted)  to  the  Atlantic  United 
States  and  Japan.  Add  to  these  the  similar  cases  of  other 
American  species  (nearly  all  of  them  particularly  Atlantic- 
American)  which  have  been  detected  in  the  Himalayas  or  in 
northern  Asia,  —  such  as  Menispermum  Canadense  (Dau- 
ricum,  DC),  Amphicarpcea  monoica?  Clitoria  Mariana, 
Osmorrhiza  brevistylis,  Monotropa  uniflora,  Phryma  lepto- 
stachya,  Tipidaria  discolor?  etc.,  —  and  it  will  be  almost  im- 
possible to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  there  has  been  a  peculiar 
intermino-lino;  of  the  eastern  American  and  eastern  Asian 
floras,  which  demands  explanation. 

The  case   might  be  made  yet  stronger  by  reckoning  some 
subgeneric  types  as  equivalent  to  generic  in  the  present  view. 


THE  FLORA    OF  JAPAN.  129 

and  by  distinguishing  those  species  or  genera  which  barely 
enter  the  eastern  borders  of  Europe ;  e.  g.y  Cimicifuga  fee- 
tida,  Mwnringia  lateriflora,  Geum  strictum,  Spirma  salici- 
folia,  etc. 

It  will  be  yet  more  strengthened,  and  the  obvious  conclu- 
sion will  become  irresistible,  when  we  take  the  nearly  allied, 
as  well  as  the  identical,  species  into  account.  Aud  also  when 
we  consider  that,  after  excluding  the  identical  species,  only 
fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  entries  in  the  European  column  of  the 
detailed  tabular  view  are  in  italic  type  (i.  e.  are  closely  repre- 
sentative of  Japanese  species)  ;  while  there  are  twenty-two 
per  cent,  of  this  character  in  the  American  column. 

For  the  latter,  I  need  only  advert  to  some  instances  of  such 
close  representation,  as  of 

Trollius  patulus by    T.  Americanus, 

Aguilegia  Burgeriana "A.  Canadensis, 

Rhus  vernicifera "     R.  venenata, 

Celastras  scandens "     C.  articulatus, 

Negundo  cissifolium "     N.  aceroides, 

Sophora  Japonica         "     S.  affinis, 

Sanguisorba  tenuifolia     ......"     S.  Canadensis, 

Astilbe  Thunbergii  and  Japonica       .     .     "     A.  decandra, 

Mitchella  undulata "     M.  repens, 

Hamamelis  Japonica "     H.  Virginica, 

Clethra  barbinervis "     C.  acuminata, 

Rhododendron  brachycarpum   .     .     .     .     "     R.  Catawbiense, 

Amsonia  elliptica "     Tabernremontana, 

Saururus  Loureiri "     S.  cernuus, 

and  many  others  of  the  same  sort,  —  several  of  which,  when 
better  known,  may  yet  prove  to  be  con  specific ;  while  an 
equally  large  number  could  be  indicated  of  species  which, 
altogether  more  positively  different,  are  yet  no  less  striking 
counterparts. 

To  demonstrate  the  former  proposition,  I  have  only  to 
contrast  the  extra-American  genera  common  to  Europe  and 
Japan  with  the  extra-European  genera  common  to  North 
America  and  Japan.  The  principal  European  genera  of  this 
category  are  Adonis,  Epimedium,  Chelidonium,  Malachium, 
Lotus,  Anthriscus,  Hedera,  Asperula,  Kubia,  Carpesium,  Ligu- 
laria,  Lampsana,  Picris,  Paederota,  Ajuga,  Thymus,  Nepeta, 


130 


ESSA  YS. 


Lamium,  Ligustrum,  Kochia?  Daphne,  Thesium,  Buxus, 
Mercurialis,  Cephalanthera,  Paris,  Asparagus,  —  to  which 
may  as  well  be  added  Paeonia  and  Bupleurum,  the  former 
having  a  representative  on  the  mountains,  and  the  latter  in 
the  arctic  regions,  of  western  America,  but  both  absent  from 
the  rest  of  our  continent.  Excepting  Paederota  and  Buxus 
(the  latter  a  rather  doubtful  native  of  eastern  Asia),  none 
of  these  genera  are  peculiar  to  Europe,  but  all  extend 
throughout  Asia  and  elsewhere  over  large  parts  of  the  world. 
The  following  incomplete  list  of  North  American  genera 
or  peculiar  subgeneric  types  represented  in  Japan  and  its 
vicinity,  but  unknown  in  Europe,  presents  a  very  different 
appearance.  Those  which  are  absent  from  the  flora  of  western 
North  America  are  italicized. 


Trautvetteria 
Cimicifuga       (barely 

reaches  Europe) 
Illidum 
Magnolia 
Cocculus  and  Meni- 

spermum  ? 
Mahonia 
Caidophyllum 
Diphylleia 
Brasenia 
Nelumbium 
Dicentra 

Stuartia  (&  Gordonia'. 
Zanthoxylum 
Cissus 
Ampelopsis 
Berchemia 
iEsculus 
Sapindus 
Negundo 
Thermopsis 
Wistaria 
Desmodium 
Lespedeza 
Rhynchosia 
Sophora 
Photinia 


Philadelphus 
Penthorum 
Hamamelis 
Liquidambar 
Cryptotoznia 
Cymopterus  ? 
Archemora 
Osmorrhiza 
Aralia  and  §  Ginseng 
Echinopanax 
Diervilla 
Mitchella 
Oldenlandia 
)   (Siegesbeckia,  in 

Mexico) 
Cacalia  (reaches 

E.  Europe) 
Gaultheria 
Leucotho'e 
Pieris 
Clethra 
Menziesia 
Symplocos 
Ardisia 
Boschniakia 
Catalpa 
Tecoma 
Dicliptera 


Asarum,  §  Heterolropa 

Phytolacca 

Benzoin  and  Sassafras  ? 

Tatranthera 

Sawurus 

Pachysandra 

Laportea 

Pilea 

Bozhmeria 

Microptelea 

Madura 

Juglans 

Abies,  §  Tsuga 

Chamsecyparjs 

Torrea 

Arisozma 

Arctiodracon 

Pogonia 

Arethusa 

Dioscorea 

Aletris 

Coprosmanthus 

Trillium 

Clintonia 

Streptopus,  §  Hekori- 

ma 
ChamrElirium  f 
Sporobolus 


THE  FLORA    OF  JAP  AX.  131 

Astilbe  Leptandra  Arundinaria 

Mitella  Callicarpa  Adiantura 

Hydrangea  Cedronella  Onoclea 

Itea  Amsonia 

Here  are  about  ninety  extra-European  genera  or  forms, 
sixty-four  of  which  are  absent  from  western  North  America 
out  of  the  tropics  (the  latter  comprising  a  very  huge  part  of 
the  most  striking  representative  species),  and  almost  as  many 
more  are  divided  between  North  America  and  extra-tropical 
(chiefly  northern  and  eastern)  Asia.  About  forty  of  the 
latter  genera  are  groups  of  single,  or  of  two  or  few  closely 
related  species,  peculiar,  or  nearly  peculiar,  to  the  regions 
just  mentioned. 

This  list  should  be  supplemented  by  those  additional  North 
American  genera  which  have  one  or  more  closely  representa- 
tive species  in  the  Himalayan  region  only,  such  as  Podophyl- 
lum, Pyrularia,  etc.  ;  and  also  by  the  numerous  cases  in 
which  eastern  American  plants  are  represented  in  the  Ilima- 
layo-Japanese  region  by  strikingly  cognate,  although  not  con- 
generic species;  such  as  our  Macrotys  by  Pityrosperma ; 
Schizandra  by  Kadsura  and  Sphaerostema ;  Neviusia  by 
Kerria  and  Rhodotypus ;  Calycanthus  by  Chimonanthus ; 
Cornus  florida  by  Benthamia ;  Prosartes  by  Disporum ; 
Helonias  by  Heloniopsis  ;  and  so  of  others,  which  have  been 
mentioned  in  the  former  part  of  this  memoir,  and  exhibited 
in  the  accompanying  tabular  view. 

I  had  long  ago,  in  Silliman's  Journal,  presented  some  data 
illustrative  of  this  remarkable  parallelism,  and  also  more  re- 
cently in  my  "  Statistics  of  the  Flora  of  the  Northern  United 
States  "  (vol.  xxii.,  second  series)  ;  where  I  had  noticed  the 
facts,  —  (1)  that  a  large  percentage  of  our  extra-Euro]  >ean 
types  are  shared  with  eastern  Asia ;  and  (2)  that  no  small 
part  of  these  are  unknown  in  western  North  America.  But 
Mr.  Bentham  was  first  to  state  the  natural  conclusion  from  all 
these  data,  —  though  I  know  not  if  he  has  even  yet  published 
the  remark,  —  namely,  that  the  interchange  between  the  tem- 
perate floras  even  of  the  western  part  of  the  Old  World  and 
of  the  New  has  mainly  taken  place  via   Asia.     Not  withstand- 


132  ESSAYS. 

ing  the  few  cases  which  point  in  the  opposite  direction  (>.  g. 
Eriocaulon  septangulare,  Spartina,  Subularia,  Betula  alba), 
the  general  statement  will  be  seen  to  be  well  sustained.  Also, 
in  the  "Journal  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Linnaean  Society," 
ii.  p.  34,  Mr.  Bentham  "  calls  to  mind  how  frequently  large 
American  genera  (such  as  Eupatorium,  Aster,  Solidago,  Sola- 
num,  etc.)  are  represented  in  eastern  Asia  by  a  small  number 
of  specfes,  which  gradually  diminish  or  altogether  disappear 
as  we  proceed  westward  toward  the  Atlantic  limits  of  Europe  ; 
whilst  the  types  peculiar  to  the  extreme  west  of  Europe  (ex- 
cluding of  course  the  arctic  flora)  are  wholly  deficient  in 
America.  These  are  among  the  considerations  which  suggest 
an  ancient  continuity  of  territory  between  America  and  Asia, 
under  a  latitude,  or  at  any  rate  with  a  climate,  more  merid- 
ional than  would  be  effected  by  a  junction  through  the  chains 
of  the  Aleutian  and  the  Kurile  Islands." 

I  shall  presently  state  why  connection  in  a  more  meridional 
latitude  need  not  be  supposed. 

The  deficiency  in  the  temperate  American  flora  of  forms  at 
all  peculiar  to  western  Europe  is  almost  complete,  and  is  most 
strikingly  in  contrast  with  the  large  number  of  eastern 
American  forms  repeated  or  represented  in  eastern  Asia.  Of 
genera  divided  between  eastern  North  America  and  Europe, 
I  can  mention  only  Ostrya,  Narthecium,  Psamma,  the  mari- 
time Cakile,  and  perhaps  Scolopendrium.  Hottonia  might 
have  been  added,  but  for  a  species  accredited  to  Java.  And 
if  we  extend  the  range  across  our  continent,  we  add  only 
Cercis  and  Loeflingia.  Of  the  ampler  genera  at  all  charac- 
teristic of  the  European  flora,  I  can  enumerate  from  the  flora 
of  the  northern  United  States  nothing  more  important  than 
Helianthemum  and  Valerian ella,  two  or  three  species  of  each 
(but  those  of  the  former  hardly  congeners  of  the  European 
ones),  adding  that  Hieracia  and  perhaps  Cirsia  are  somewhat 
more  plentiful  in  eastern  than  in  western  America.  Let  it 
also  be  noted,  that  there  are  even  fewer  western  European 
types  in  the  Pacific  than  in  the  Atlantic  United  States,  not- 
withstanding the  similarity  of  the  climate  ! 

That  representation  by  allied  species  of  genera  peculiar  or 


THE   FLORA    OF  JAPAN.  133 

nearly  peculiar  to  two  regions  furnishes  evidence  of  similar 
nature  and  of  equal  pertinency  with  representation  by  identi- 
cal species,  will  hardly  be  doubted.  Whether  or  not  suscep- 
tible of  scientific  explanation,  it  is  certain  that  related  species 
of  phaenogamous  plants  are  commonly  associated  in  the  same 
region,  or  are  found  in  comparatively  approximate  (however 
large)  areas  of  similar  climate.1  Remarkable  exceptions  may 
indeed  be  adduced,  but  the  fact  that  they  are  remarkable  goes 
to  confirm  the  proposition.  Indeed,  the  general  expectation 
of  botanists  in  this  regard  sufficiently  indicates  the  common, 
implicit  opinion.  The  discovery  of  a  new  Sarracenia  or  of 
a  new  Halesia  in  the  Atlantic  United  States,  or  of  a  new 
Eschscholtzia,  Platystemon,  or  Calais  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  would  excite  no  surprise.  A  converse  discovery, 
or  the  detection  of  any  of  these  genera  in  a  remote  region, 
would  excite  great  surprise.  The  discovery  of  numerous 
closely  related  species  thus  divided  between  two  widely  sepa- 
rated districts  might  not,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowl- 
edge, suggest  former  continuity,  migration,  or  interchange  ; 

1  The  fundamental  and  most  difficult  question  remaining  in  natural 
history  is  here  presented — the  question  whether  this  actual  geographi- 
cal association  of  congeneric  or  other  nearly  related  species  is  primordial, 
and  therefore  beyond  all  scientific  explanation,  or  whether  even  this  may 
be  to  a  certain  extent  a  natural  result.  The  only  noteworthy  attempt  at 
a  scientific  solution  of  the  problem,  aiming  to  bring  the  variety  as  well  as 
the  geographical  association  of  existing  species  more  within  the  domain 
of  cause  and  effect,  is  that  of  Mr.  Darwin  and  (later)  of  Mr.  Wallace,  — 
partially  sketched  in  their  short  papers  "  On  the  Tendency  of  Species 
to  form  Varieties,  and  on  the  Perpetuation  of  Varieties  and  Species  by 
natural  Means  of  Selection,"  in  the  "  Journal  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Linnsean  Society,"  vol.  iii.  (Zoology),  p.  45.  The  views  there  suggested 
must  bear  a  prominent  part  in  future  investigations  into  the  distribution 
and  probable  origin  of  species.  It  will  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  ten- 
dencies and  causes  indicated  are  really  operative  ;  the  question  is  as  to  the 
extent  of  their  operation.  But  I  am  already  disposed,  on  these  and  other 
grounds,  to  admit  that  what  are  termed  closely  related  species  may  in 
many  cases  be  lineal  descendants  from  a  pristine  stock,  just  as  domesti- 
cated races  are  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  limits  of  occasional  variation 
in  species  (if  by  them  we  mean  primordial  forms)  are  wider  than  is  gener- 
ally supposed,  and  that  derivative  forms  when  segregated  may  be  as  con- 
stantly reproduced  as  their  originals. 


134  ESSAYS. 

but  that  of  identical  species  peculiar  to  the  two  inevitably 
would. 

Why  should  it?  Evidently  because  the  natural  supposi- 
tion is  that  individuals  of  the  same  kind  are  descendants  from 
a  common  stock,  or  have  spread  from  a  common  centre ;  and 
because  the  progress  of  investigation,  instead  of  eliminating 
this  preconception  from  the  minds  of  botanists,  has  rather 
confirmed  it.  Every  other  hypothesis  has  derived  its  prin- 
cipal support  from  difficulties  in  the  application  of  this.  A 
review  of  what  lias-  been  published  upon  the  subject  of  late 
years  makes  it  clear  that  the  doctrine  of  the  local  origin  of 
vegetable  species  has  been  more  and  more  accepted,  although, 
during  the  same  period,  species  have  been  shown  to  be  inuc% 
more  widely  dispersed  than  was  formerly  supposed.  Facts  of 
the  latter  kind,  and  the  conclusions  to  which  they  point,  have 
been  most  largely  and  cogently  brought  out  by  Dr.  Hooker, 
and  are  among  the  very  important  general  results  of  his  ex- 
tensive investigations.  And  the  best  evidence  of  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  theory  of  the  local  origin  of  species — notwith- 
standing the  great  increase  of  facts  which  at  first  would  seem 
to  tell  the  other  way  —  is  furnished  by  the  works  of  the  pres- 
ent De  Candolle  upon  geographical  botany.  This  careful  and 
conscientious  investigator  formerly  adopted  and  strenuously 
maintained  Schouw's  hypothesis  of  the  double  or  multiple 
origin  of  species.  But  in  his  great  work,  the  "  Geographie 
Botanique  Raisonnee,"  published  in  the  year  1855,  he  has  in 
effect  discarded  it,  and  this  not  from  any  theoretical  objec- 
tions to  that  view,  but  because  he  found  it  no  longer  needed 
to  account  for  the  general  facts  of  distribution.  This 
appears  from  his  qualified  though  dubious  adherence  to  the 
hypothesis  of  a  double  origin,  as  a  dernier  ressort,  in  the  few 
and  extraordinary  cases  which  he  could  hardly  explain  in  any 
other  way.  His  decisive  instance,  indeed,  is  the  occurrence 
of  the  eastern  American  Phryma  leptostachya  in  the  Hima- 
laya Mountains. 

The  facts  presented  in  the  present  memoir  effectually  dis- 
pose of  this  subsidiary  hypothesis,  by  showing  that  the  sup- 
posed  single    exception    belongs  to    a   not    uncommon    case. 


THE   FLORA    OF  JAPAN.  135 

Indeed,  so  many  species  are  now  known  to  be  common  to  east- 
ern and  northern  Asia  and  eastern  North  America,  —  some 
of  them  occurring  also  in  northwestern  America  and  some 
not,  —  and  so  many  genera  are  divided  between  these  two 
regions,  that  the  antecedent  improbability  of  such  occurrence 
is  done  away,  and  more  cases  of  the  kind  may  be  confidently 
expected.  However  others  may  regard  them,  it  is  clear  that 
De  Candolle  would  now  explain  these  eases  in  accordance 
with  the  general  views  of  distribution  adopted  by  him,  under 
which  they  naturally  fall,  —  so  abandoning  the  notion  of  a 
separate  creation. 

I  know  not  whether  any  botanist  continues  to  maintain 
Schouw's  hypothesis.  But  its  elements  have  been  developed 
into  a  different  and  more  comprehensive  doctrine,  that  of 
Agassiz,  which  should  now  be  contemplated.  It  may  be  de- 
nominated the  autochthonal  hypothesis. 

In  place  of  the  ordinary  conception,  that  each  species  ori- 
ginated in  a  local  area,  whence  it  has  been  diffused,  according 
to  circumstances,  over  more  or  less  broad  tracts,  —  in  some 
cases  becoming  widely  discontinuous  in  area  through  climatic 
or  other  physical  changes  operating  during  a  long  period  of 
time,  —  Professor  Agassiz  maintains,  substantially,  that  each 
species  originated  where  it  now  occurs,  probably  in  as  great  a 
number  of  individuals  occupying  as  large  an  area,  and  gener- 
ally the  same  area,  or  the  same  discontinuous  areas  as  at  the 
present  time. 

This  hypothesis  is  more  difficult  to  test,  because  more 
ideal  than  any  other.  It  might  suffice  for  the  present  pur- 
pose to  remark,  that,  in  referring  the  actual  distribution,  no 
less  than  the  origin,  of  existing  species  to  the  Divine  will,  it 
would  remove  the  whole  question  out  of  the  field  of  inductive 
science.  Regarded  as  a  philosophical  question,  Maupertius's 
well-known  "  principle  of  least  action  "  might  be  legitimately 
urged  against  it,  namely,  "that  it  is  inconsistent  with  our 
idea  of  Divine  wisdom  that  the  Creator  should  use  more 
power  than  was  necessary  to  accomplish  a  given  end.'*  This 
philosophical  principle  holds  so  strictly  true  in  all  the  me- 
chanical adaptations  of  the  universe,  as  Professor  Pierce  has 


136  ESSAYS. 

shown,  that  we  cannot  think  it  inapplicable  to  the  organic 
world  also,  and  especially  to  the  creation  of  beings  endowed 
with  such  enormous  multiplying  power,  and  such  means  and 
facilities  for  dissemination,  as  most  plants  and  animals. 
Why  then  should  we  suppose  the  Creator  to  do  that  super- 
naturally  which  would  be  naturally  effected  by  the  very  in- 
strumentalities which  he  has  set  in  operation  ? 

Viewed,  however,  simply  in  its  scientific  applications  to  the 
question  under  consideration  (the  distribution  of  plants  in 
the  temjjerate  zone  of  the  northern  hemisphere),  the  autoch- 
thonal hypothesis  might  be  tested  by  inquiring  whether  the 
primitive  or  earliest  range  of  our  species  could  possibly  have 
remained  unaffected  by  the  serious  and  prolonged  climatic 
vicissitudes  to  which  they  must  needs  have  been  subject ;  and 
whether  these  vicissitudes,  and  their  natural  consequences, 
may  not  suffice  to  explain  the  partial  intermingling  of  the 
floras  of  North  America  and  northern  Asia,  upon  the  supposi- 
tion of  the  local  origin  of  each  species.  Let  us  bring  to  the 
inquiry  the  considerations  which  Mr.  Darwin  first  brought  to 
bear  upon  such  questions,  and  which  have  been  systematically 
developed  and  applied  by  the  late  Edward  Forbes,  by  Dr. 
Hooker,  and  by  Alphonse  De  Candolle. 

No  one  now  supposes  that  the  existing  species  of  plants  are 
of  recent  creation,  or  that  their  present  distribution  is  the  re- 
sult of  a  few  thousand  years.  Various  lines  of  evidence  con- 
spire to  show  that  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  close 
of  the  tertiary  period  covers  an  immense  number  of  years  ; 
and  that  our  existing  flora  may  in  part  date  from  the  tertiary 
period  itself.  It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  about  twenty 
per  cent,  of  the  Mollusca  of  the  middle  tertiary  (miocene 
epoch),  and  forty  per  cent,  of  the  pliocene  species  on  the  At- 
lantic coast  still  exist  ;  and  it  is  altogether  probable  that  as 
large  a  portion  of  the  vegetation  may  be  of  equal  antiquity. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  direct  evidence  as  respects 
the  flora  could  not  be  expected  to  be  equally  abundant.  Still, 
although  the  fossil  plants  of  the  tertiary  and  the  post-tertiary 
of  North  America  have  only  now  begun  to  be  studied,  the 
needful  evidence  is  not  wanting. 


THE  FLORA    OF  JAPAN.  137 

On  our  northwestern  coast,  in  the  miocene  of  Vancouver's 
Island,  among  a  singular  mixture  of  species  referable  to  Sa- 
lix,  Populus,  Quercus,  Planera,  Diospyros,  Salisburia,  Mens, 
Cinnamomum,  Personia,  or  other  Proteacea\  ami  a  Palm 
(the  latter  genera  decisively  indicating  a  tropical  or  sub- 
tropical climate),  Mr.  Lesquereux  has  identified  one  existing 
species,  a  tree  characteristic  of  the  same  region  ten  or  fifteen 
degrees  farther  south,  namely,  the  Redwood  or  Sequoia  sem- 
pervirens.  In  beds  at  Somerville  referred  to  the  lower  or 
middle  pliocene  by  Mr.  Lesquereux,  this  botanist  has  recently 
identified  the  leaves  of  Persea  Carolinennls,  Prunus  Carol 7- 
niana,  and  Quercus  myrtifolia,  now  inhabiting  the  warm  sea- 
coast  and  islands  of  the  southern  States.1 

The  pliocene  quadrupeds  of  Nebraska  also  show  that  the 
climate  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  at  this  epoch  was  much 
warmer  than  now.  About  the  upper  Missouri  and  Platte 
there  were  then  several  species  of  Camel  (Procamelus)  and 
allied  Ruminantia  and  a  Rhinoceros,  besides  a  Mastodon, 
an  Elephant,  some  Horses  and  their  allies,  not  to  mention  a 
corresponding  number  of  carnivorous  animals.  These  herbi- 
vora  probably  fed  in  a  good  degree  upon  herbage  and  grasses 
of  still  existing  species.  For  herbs  and  grasses  are  generally 
capable  of  enduring  much  greater  climatic  changes,  and  are 
therefore  likely  to  be  even  more  ancient,  than  trees.  These 
animals  must  have  had  at  least  a  warm-temperate  climate  to 
live  in :  so  that  in  latitude  40°-  43°  they  could  not  have  been 
anywhere  near  the  northern  limit  of  the  temperate  flora  of 
those  days  ;  indeed  the  temperate  flora,  which  now  in  western 
Europe  touches  the  Arctic  Circle,  must  then  have  reached 
equally  high  latitudes  in  central  or  western  North  America. 
In  other  words,  the  temperate  floras  of  America  and  Asia 
must  then  have  been  conterminous  (with  small  oceanic  sepa- 
ration), and  therefore  have  commingled,  as  conterminous 
floras  of  similar  climate  everywhere  do. 

At  length,  as  the  post-tertiary  opened,  the  glacier  epoch 

i  These  and  other  data,  obligingly  communicated  by  Mr.  Lesquenux 
have  been  published  in  the  May  number  of  the  '<  American  Journal  of 
Science  and  Arts,"  3  ser.,  xvii. 


138  ESSA  YS. 

came  slowly  on,  —  an  extraordinary  refrigeration  of  the 
northern  hemisphere,  in  the  course  of  ages  carrying  glacial 
ice  and  arctic  climate  down  nearly  to  the  latitude  of  the  Ohio. 
The  change  was  evidently  so  gradual  that  it  did  not  destroy 
the  temperate  flora,  at  least  not  those  enumerated  above  as 
existing  species.  These  and  their  fellows,  or  such  as  survive, 
must  have  been  pushed  on  to  lower  latitudes  as  the  cold  ad- 
vanced, just  as  they  now  would  be  if  the  temperature  were  to 
be  again  lowered  ;  and  between  them  and  the  ice  there  was 
doubtless  a  band  of  subarctic  and  arctic  vegetation,  —  por- 
tions of  which,  retreating  up  the  mountains  as  the  climate 
ameliorated  and  the  ice  receded,  still  scantily  survive  upon 
our  highest  Alleghanies,  and  more  abundantly  upon  the  colder 
summits  of  the  mountains  of  New  York  and  New  England  ;  — 
demonstrating  the  existence  of  the  present  arctic-alpine  vege- 
tation during  the  glacial  era ;  and  that  the  change  of  climate 
at  its  close  was  so  gradual  that  it  was  not  destructive  to  vege- 
table species. 

As  the  temperature  rose,  and  the  ice  gradually  retreated,  the 
surviving  temperate  flora  must  have  returned  northward  pain 
passu,  and  —  which  is  an  important  point  —  must  have  ad- 
vanced much  farther  northward,  and  especially  northwest- 
ward, than  it  now  does ;  so  far,  indeed,  that  the  temperate 
floras  of  North  America  and  of  eastern  Asia,  after  having  been 
for  long  ages  most  widely  separated,  must  have  become  a  sec- 
ond time  conterminous.  Whatever  doubts  may  be  entertained 
respecting  the  existence  of  our  present  vegetation  generally 
before  the  glacial  era,  its  existence  immediately  after  that 
period  will  hardly  be  questioned.  Here,  therefore,  may  be 
adduced  the  direct  evidence  recently  brought  to  light  by  Mr. 
Lesquereux,  who  has  identified  our  Live  Oak  (  Quercus  virens), 
Pecan  (Carya  olivceformis),  Chinquapin  (Castanea pumila^), 
Planer-tree  (Planer a  aquatica),  Honey-Locust  (Gleditschia 
triacanthos),  Prinos  coriaceus,  and  Acorns  Calamus,  —  be- 
sides an  Elm  and  a  Ceanothus  doubtfully  referable  to  existing 
species,  —  on  the  Mississippi,  near  Columbus,  Kentucky,  in 
beds  which  Mr.  Lesquereux  regards  as  anterior  to  the  drift. 
Professor  D.  D.  Owen  has  indicated  their  position  "  as  about 


THE  FLORA    OF  JAPAN.  139 

one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  lower  than  the  ferrugineous  sand 
in  which  the  bones  of  the  Megalonyx  Jeffersonii  were  found." 
So  that  they  belong  to  the  period  immediately  succeeding  the 
drift,  if  not  to  that  immediately  preceding  it.  All  the  vege- 
table remains  of  this  deposit,  which  have  been  obtained  in  a 
determinable  condition,  have  been  referred,  either  positively 
or  probably,  to  existing  species  of  the  United  States  flora, 
most  of  them  now  inhabiting  the  region  a  few  degrees  farther 
south. 

If,  then,  our  present  temperate  flora  existed  at  the  close  of 
the  glacial  epoch,  the  evidence  that  it  soon  attained  a  high 
northern  range  is  ready  to  our  hand.  For  then  followed  the 
second  epoch  of  the  post-tertiary,  called  the  fluvial  by  Dana, 
when  the  region  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Lake  Champlain  was 
submerged,  and  the  sea  there  stood  five  hundred  feet  above 
its  present  level ;  when  the  higher  temperate  latitudes  of 
North  America,  and  probably  the  arctic  generally,  were  less 
elevated  than  now,  and  the  rivers  vastly  larger,  as  shown  by 
the  immense  upper  alluvial  plains,  from  fifty  to  three  hundred 
feet  above  their  present  beds ;  and  when  the  diminished 
breadth  and  lessened  height  of  northern  land  must  have  given 
a  much  milder  climate  than  the  present. 

Whatever  the  cause,  the  milder  climate  of  the  fluvial  epoch 
is  undoubted.  Its  character,  and  therefore  that  of  the  vege- 
tation, is  decisively  shown,  as  geologists  have  remarked,  by 
the  quadrupeds.  While  the  Megatherium,  Mylodon,  Dieo- 
tyles,  etc.,  demonstrate  a  warmer  climate  than  at  present  in 
the  southern  and  middle  United  States,  the  Elephax  primi- 
genius,  ranging  from  Canada  to  the  very  shores  of  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  equally  proves  a  temperate  climate  and  a  temperate 
flora  in  these  northern  regions.  This  is  still  more  apparent 
in  the  species  of  the  other  continent,  where,  in  Siberia,  not 
only  the  Elephas  primi genius,  but  also  a  Rhinoceros  roamed 
northward  to  the  arctic  sea-coast.  The  quadrupeds  that  in- 
habited Europe  in  the  same  epoch  are  well  known  to  indicate 
a  warm  temperate  climate  as  far  north  as  Britain,  in  the  mid- 
dle, if  not  the  later  post-tertiary.  North  America  then  had 
its  herds  of  Mastodons,  Elephants,  Buffaloes  or  Bisons  of  dif- 


140  ESSAYS. 

ferent  species,  Elks,  Horses,  Megalonyx,  the  Lion,  etc.  ;  and, 
from  the  relations  between  this  fauna  and  that  of  Europe, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  climate  was  as  much  milder 
than  the  present  on  this  as  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 
All  the  facts  known  to  us  in  the  tertiary  and  post-tertiary, 
even  to  the  limiting  line  of  the  drift,  conspire  to  show  that 
the  difference  between  the  two  continents  as  to  temperature 
was  very  nearly  the  same  then  as  now,  and  that  the  isother- 
mal lines  of  the  northern  hemisphere  curved  in  the  directions 
they  now  do. 

A  climate  such  as  these  facts  demonstrate  for  the  fluvial 
epoch  would  again  commingle  the  temperate  floras  of  the 
two  continents  at  Behring's  Straits,  and  earlier  —  probably 
through  more  land  than  now  —  by  way  of  the  Aleutian  and 
Kurile  Islands.  I  cannot  imagine  a  state  of  circumstances 
under  which  the  Siberian  Elephant  could  migrate,  and  tem- 
perate plants  could  not. 

The  fluvial  was  succeeded  by  the  "  terrace  epoch,"  as  Dana 
names  it,  "  a  time  of  transition  towards  the  present  condition, 
bringing  the  northern  part  of  the  continent  up  to  its  present 
level  and  down  to  its  present  cool  temperature,"  1  —  giving 
the  arctic  flora  its  present  range,  and  again  separating  the 
temperate  floras  of  the  New  and  of  the  Old  World  to  the 
extent  they  are  now  separated. 

Under  the  light  which  these  geological  considerations  throw 
upon  the  question,  I  cannot  resist  the  conclusion,  that  the  ex- 
tant vegetable  kingdom  has  a  long  and  eventful  history,  and 
that  the  explanation  of  apparent  anomalies  in  the  geograph- 
ical distribution  of  species  may  be  found  in  the  various  and 
prolonged  climatic  or  other  physical  vicissitudes  to  which  they 
have  been  subject  in  earlier  times  ;  that  the  occurrence  of  cer- 
tain species,  formerly  supposed  to  be  peculiar  to  North  Amer- 
ica, in  a  remote  or  antipodal  region  affords  itself  no  presump- 
tion that  they  were  originated  there,  and  that  the  interchange 
of  plants  between  eastern  North  America  and  eastern  Asia  is 
explicable  uj3on  the  most  natural  and  generally  received  hy- 

1  For  the  collocation  and  communication  of  the  geological  data  here 
presented,  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  my  friend,  Professor  Dana. 


THE  FLORA   OF  JAPAN.  141 

pothesis  (or  at  least  offers  no  greater  difficulty  than  does  the 
arctic  flora,  the  general  homogeneousness  of  which  round  the 
world  has  always  been  thought  compatible  with  local  origin 
of  the  species),  and  is  perhaps  not  more  extensive  than  might 
be  expected  under  the  circumstances.  That  the  interchange 
has  mainly  taken  place  in  high  northern  latitudes,  and  that 
the  isothermal  lines  have  in  earlier  times  turned  northward 
on  our  eastern,  and  southward  on  our  northwest  coast,  as  they 
do  now,  are  points  which  go  far  towards  explaining  why  east- 
ern North  America,  rather  than  Oregon  and  California,  lias 
been  mainly  concerned  in  this  interchange,  and  why  the  tem- 
perate interchange,  even  with  Europe,  has  principally  taken 
place  through  Asia. 

Brasenia  peltata.  —  To  the  remarks  upon  the  known  range 
of  this  species,  I  have  now  to  add  the  interesting  fact,  that 
it  exists  upon  the  northwestern  coast  of  America,  having 
been  gathered  by  Dr.  Pickering,  in  Wilkes's  South  Sea  Ex- 
ploring Expedition,  in  a  stream  which  falls  into  Gray's  Har- 
bor, lat.  47°.  It  must  be  local  on  the  western  side  of  the  con- 
tinent, or  it  would  have  been  met  with  before.  When  this 
remarkable  plant  was  known  to  occur  only  in  eastern  North 
America  and  eastern  Australia,  it  made  the  strongest  case  in 
favor  of  double  creation  that  perhaps  has  ever  been  adduced. 
But  since  it  has  been  found  to  occur  throughout  the  eastern 
Himalayas  and  in  Japan,  and  has  now  been  detected  in  north- 
western America  also,  the  case  seems  to  crown  the  conclu- 
sions to  which  this  memoir  arrives.  (Note  to  reprint  in 
"  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,"  3  ser.,  xviii.  199.) 


SEQUOIA  AND  ITS   HISTORY.1 

The  session  being  now  happily  inaugurated,  your  presiding 
officer  of  the  last  year  has  only  one  duty  to  perform  before  he 
surrenders  his  chair  to  his  successor.  If  allowed  to  borrow  a 
simile  from  the  language  of  my  own  profession,  I  might  liken 
the  President  of  this  Association  to  a  biennial  plant.  He 
flourishes  for  the  year  in  which  he  comes  into  existence,  and 
performs  his  appropriate  functions  as  presiding  officer. 
When  the  second  year  comes  round,  he  is  expected  to  blossom 
out  in  an  address  and  disappear.  Each  President,  as  he  re- 
tires, is  naturally  expected  to  contribute  something  from  his 
own  investigations  or  his  own  line  of  study,  usually  to  discuss 
some  particular  scientific  topic. 

Now,  although  I  have  cultivated  the  field  of  North  Amer- 
ican botany,  with  some  assiduity,  for  more  than  forty  years, 
have  reviewed  our  vegetable  hosts,  and  assigned  to  no  small 
number  of  them  their  names  and  their  place  in  the  ranks,  yet, 
so  far  as  our  own  wide  country  is  concerned,  I  have  been  to  a 
great  extent  a  closet  botanist.  Until  this  summer  I  had  not 
seen  the  Mississippi,  nor  set  foot  upon  a  prairie. 

To  gratify  a  natural  interest,  and  to  gain  some  title  for 
addressing  a  body  of  practical  naturalists  and  explorers,  I 
have  made  a  pilgrimage  across  the  continent.  I  have  sought 
and  viewed  in  their  native  haunts  many  a  plant  and  flower 
which  for  me  had  long  bloomed  unseen,  or  only  in  the  hortas 
siccus.  I  have  been  able  to  see  for  myself  what  species  and 
what  forms  constitute  the  main  features  of  the  vegetation  of 
each  successive  region,  and  record  —  as  the  vegetation  uner- 
ringly does  —  the  permanent  characteristics  of  its  climate. 

1  The  address  of  the  retiring  President  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  Delivered  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  August, 
1872.     (Proceedings  American  Association,  xxi.  1.) 


SEQUOIA    AND  ITS  HISTORY.  143 

Passing  on  from  the  eastern  district,  marked  by  its  equably 
distributed  rainfall,  and  therefore  naturally  forest-clad,  I  have 
seen  the  trees  diminish  in  number,  give  place  to  wide  prairies, 
restrict  their  growth  to  the  borders  of  streams,  and  then  dis- 
appear from  the  boundless  drier  plains;  have  seen  grassy 
plains  change  into  a  brown  and  sere  desert,  —  desert  in  the 
common  sense,  but  hardly  anywhere  botanically  so ;  have 
seen  a  fair  growth  of  coniferous  trees  adorning  the  more 
favored  slopes  of  a  mountain  range  high  enough  to  compel 
summer  showers  ;  have  traversed  that  broad  and  bare  elevated 
region  shut  off  on  both  sides  by  high  mountains  from  the 
moisture  supplied  by  either  ocean,  and  longitudinally  inter- 
sected by  sierras  which  seemingly  remain  as  naked  as  they 
were  born ;  and  have  reached  at  length  the  westward  slopes 
of  the  high  mountain  barrier  which,  refreshed  by  the  Pacific, 
bear  the  noble  forests  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  the  Coast 
Range,  and  among  them  trees  which  are  the  wonder  of  the 
world.  As  I  stood  in  their  shade,  in  the  groves  of  Mariposa 
and  Calaveras,  and  again  under  the  canopy  of  the  commoner 
Redwood,  raised  on  columns  of  such  majestic  height  and  ample 
girth,  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  could  not  do  better  than 
to  share  with  you,  upon  this  occasion,  some  of  the  thoughts 
which  possessed  my  mind.  In  their  development  they  may, 
perhaps,  lead  us  up  to  questions  of  considerable  scientific 
interest. 

I  shall  not  detain  you  with  any  remarks  —  which  would  now 
be  trite  —  upon  the  size  or  longevity  of  these  far-famed  Se- 
quoia trees,  or  of  the  Sugar  Pines,  Incense-Cedar,  and  Firs 
associated  with  them,  of  which  even  the  prodigious  bulk  of 
the  dominating  Sequoia  does  not  sensibly  diminish  the  gran- 
deur. Although  no  account  and  no  photographic  representa- 
tion of  either  species  of  the  far-famed  Sequoia  trees  gives  any 
adequate  impression  of  their  singular  majesty  —  still  less  of 
their  beauty,  —  yet  my  interest  in  them  did  not  culminate 
merely  or  mainly  in  considerations  of  their  size  and  age. 
Other  trees,  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  may  claim  to  be  older. 
Certain  Australian  Gum-trees  (Eucalypti)  are  said  to  be 
taller.     Some,  we  are  told,  rise  so  high  that  they  might  even 


144  ESS  A  YS. 

cast  a  flicker  of  shadow  upon  the  summit  of  the  pyramid  of 
Cheops.  Yet  the  oldest  of  them  doubtless  grew  from  seed 
which  was  shed  long  after  the  names  of  the  pyramid-builders 
had  been  forgotten.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  actual 
counting  of  the  layers  of  several  trees,  no  Sequoia  now  alive 
can  sensibly  antedate  the  Christian  era. 

Nor  was  I  much  impressed  with  an  attraction  of  man's 
adding.  That  the  more  remarkable  of  these  trees  should  bear 
distinguishing  appellations  seems  proper  enough;  but  the 
tablets  of  personal  names  which  are  affixed  to  many  of  them 
in  the  most  visited  groves  —  as  if  the  memory  of  more  or  less 
notable  people  of  our  day  might  be  made  more  enduring  by 
the  juxtaposition  —  do  suggest  some  incongruity.  When  we 
consider  that  a  hand's  breadth  at  the  circumference  of  any  one 
of  the  venerable  trunks  so  placarded  has  recorded  in  annual 
lines  the  lifetime  of  the  individual  thus  associated  with  it,  one 
may  question  whether  the  next  hand's  breadth  may  not  meas- 
ure the  fame  of  some  of  the  names  thus  ticketed  for  adventi- 
tious immortality.  Whether  it  be  the  man  or  the  tree  that  is 
honored  in  the  connection,  probably  either  would  live  as  long, 
in  fact  and  in  memory,  without  it. 

One  notable  thing  about  these  Sequoia  trees  is  their  isola- 
tion. Most  of  the  trees  associated  with  them  are  of  peculiar 
species,  and  some  of  them  are  nearly  as  local.  Yet  every 
Pine,  Fir,  and  Cypress  in  California  is  in  some  sort  familiar, 
because  it  has  near  relatives  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  But 
the  Eedwoods  have  none.  The  Redwood  —  including  in  that 
name  the  two  species  of  "Big-trees  "  —  belongs  to  the  general 
Cypress  family,  but  is  sui  generis.  Thus  isolated  systemati- 
cally, and  extremely  isolated  geographically,  and  so  wonderful 
in  size  and  port,  they  more  than  other  trees  suggest  questions. 

Were  they  created  thus  local  and  lonely,  denizens  of  Cali- 
fornia only ;  one  in  limited  numbers  in  a  few  choice  spots  on 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  the  other  along  the  Coast  Range  from  the 
Bay  of  Monterey  to  the  frontiers  of  Oregon  ?  Are  they  ver- 
itable Melchizedeks,  without  pedigree  or  early  relationship, 
and  possibly  fated  to  be  without  descent  ? 

Or  are  they  now  coming  upon  the  stage  —  or  rather  were 


SEQUOIA   AND  ITS  HISTORY.  145 

they  coming  but  for  man's  interference  —  to  play  a  part  in 
the  future? 

Or  are  they  remnants,  sole  and  scanty  survivors  of  a  race 
that  has  played  a  grander  part  in  the  past,  but  is  now  verging 
to  extinction  ?  Have  they  had  a  career,  and  can  that  career 
be  ascertained  or  surmised,  so  that  we  may  at  least  guess 
whence  they  came,  and  how,  and  when  ? 

Time  was,  and  not  long  ago,  when  such  questions  as  these 
were  regarded  as  useless  and  vain,  —  when  students  of  natural 
history,  unmindful  of  what  the  name  denotes,  were  content 
with  a  knowledge  of  things  as  they  now  are,  but  gave  little 
heed  as  to  how  they  came  to  be  so.  Now,  such  questions  are 
held  to  be  legitimate,  and  perhaps  not  wholly  unanswerable. 
It  cannot  now  be  said  that  these  trees  inhabit  their  present 
restricted  areas  simply  because  they  are  there  placed  in  the 
climate  and  soil  of  all  the  world  most  congenial  to  them. 
These  must  indeed  be  congenial,  or  they  would  not  survive. 
But  when  we  see  how  Australian  Eucalyptus  trees  thrive  upon 
the  Californian  coast,  and  how  these  very  Redwoods  flourish 
upon  another  continent ;  how  the  so-called  Wild  Oat  ( Avena 
sterilis  of  the  Old  World)  has  taken  full  possession  of  Cali- 
fornia ;  how  that  cattle  and  horses,  introduced  by  the  Span- 
iard, have  spread  as  widely  and  made  themselves  as  much  at 
home  on  the  plains  of  La  Plata  as  on  those  of  Tartary  ;  and 
that  the  Cardoon-thistle  seeds,  and  others  they  brought  with 
them,  have  multiplied  there  into  numbers  probably  much  ex- 
ceeding those  extant  in  their  native  lands ;  indeed,  when  we 
contemplate  our  own  race,  and  our  own  particular  stock,  taking- 
such  recent  but  dominating  possession  of  this  New  World ; 
when  we  consider  how  the  indigenous  flora  of  islands  generally 
succumbs  to  the  foreigners  which  come  in  the  train  of  man  ; 
and  that  most  weeds  (i.  e.,  the  prepotent  plants  in  open  soil) 
of  all  temperate  climates  are  not  "  to  the  manner  born,"  but 
are  self-invited  intruders,  —  we  must  needs  abandon  the  notion 
of  any  primordial  and  absolute  adaptation  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals to  their  habitats,  which  may  stand  in  lieu  of  explanation, 
and  so  preclude  our  inquiring  any  further.  The  harmony  of 
Nature  and  its  admirable  perfection  need  not  be  regarded  as 


146  ESSAYS. 

inflexible  and  changeless.  Nor  need  Nature  be  likened  to  a 
statue,  or  a  cast  in  rigid  bronze,  but  rather  to  an  organism, 
with  play  and  adaptability  of  parts,  and  life  and  even  soul 
informing  the  whole.  Under  the  former  view,  Nature  would 
be  "  the  faultless  monster  which  the  world  ne'er  saw,"  but  in- 
scrutable as  the  Sphinx,  whom  it  were  vain,  or  worse,  to  ques- 
tion of  the  whence  and  whither.  Under  the  other,  the  per- 
fection of  Nature,  if  relative,  is  multifarious  and  ever  renewed ; 
and  much  that  is  enigmatical  now  may  find  explanation  in 
some  record  of  the  past. 

That  the  two  species  of  Redwood  we  are  contemplating 
originated  as  they  are  and  where  they  are,  and  for  the  part 
they  are  now  playing,  is,  to  say  the  least,  not  a  scientific  sup- 
position, nor  in  any  sense  a  probable  one.  Nor  is  it  more 
likely  that  they  are  destined  to  play  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
future,  or  that  they  would  have  done  so,  even  if  the  Indian's 
fires  and  the  white  man's  axe  had  spared  them.  The  Red- 
wood of  the  coast  (Sequoia  sempervirens)  had  the  stronger 
hold  upon  existence,  forming  as  it  did  large  forests  through- 
out a  narrow  belt  about  three  hundred  miles  in  length,  and 
being  so  tenacious  of  life  that  every  large  stump  sprouts  into 
a  copse.  But  it  does  not  pass  the  Bay  of  Monterey,  nor  cross 
the  line  of  Oregon,  although  so  grandly  developed  not  far  be- 
low it.  The  more  remarkable  Sequoia  gigantea  of  the  Sierra 
exists  in  numbers  so  limited  that  the  separate  groves  may  be 
reckoned  upon  the  fingers,  and  the  trees  of  most  of  them  have 
been  counted,  except  near  their  southern  limit,  where  they  are 
said  to  be  more  copious.  A  species  limited  in  individuals 
holds  its  existence  by  a  precarious  tenure  ;  and  this  has  a  foot- 
hold only  in  a  few  sheltered  spots,  of  a  happy  mean  in  tem- 
perature, and  locally  favored  with  moisture  in  summer.  Even 
there,  for  some  reason  or  other,  the  Pines  with  which  they  are 
associated  (Pinus  Lambertiana  and  P.ponderosd),  the  Firs 
(Abies  grandis  and  A.  magnified),  and  even  the  Incense- 
Cedar  (Libocedrus  decurrens)  possess  a  great  advantage, 
and,  though  they  strive  in  vain  to  emulate  their  size,  wholly 
overpower  the  Sequoias  in  numbers.  "  To  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given."     The  force  of  numbers  eventually  wins.     At 


SEQUOIA    AND  ITS  HISTORY.  147 

least  in  the  commonly  visited  groves  Sequoia  gig  ant  ea  is  in- 
vested in  its  last  stronghold,  can  neither  advance  into  more 
exposed  positions  above,  nor  fall  back  into  drier  and  barer 
ground  below,  nor  hold  its  own  in  the  long-run  where  it  is, 
under  present  conditions ;  and  a  little  further  drying  of  the 
climate,  which  must  once  have  been  much  moister  than  now, 
would  precipitate  its  doom.  Whatever  the  individual  lon- 
gevity, certain  if  not  speedy  is  the  decline  of  a  race  in  which 
a  high  death-rate  afflicts  the  young.  Seedlings  of  the  big 
trees  occur  not  rarely,  indeed,  but  in  meagre  proportion  to 
those  of  associated  trees ;  and  small  indeed  is  the  chance  that 
any  of  these  will  attain  to  "  the  days  of  the  years  of  their 
fathers."  "  Few  and  evil "  are  the  days  of  all  the  forest 
likely  to  be,  while  man,  both  barbarian  and  civilized,  torments 
them  with  fires,  fatal  at  once  to  seedlings,  and  at  length  to 
the  aged  also.  The  forests  of  California,  proud  as  the  State 
may  be  of  them,  are  already  too  scanty  and  insufficient  for 
her  uses.  Two  lines,  such  as  may  be  drawn  with  one  sweep 
of  a  brush  over  the  map,  would  cover  them  all.  The  coast 
Redwood  —  the  most  important  tree  in  California,  although  a 
million  times  more  numerous  than  its  relative  of  the  Sierra  — 
is  too  good  to  live  long.  Such  is  its  value  for  lumber  and  its 
accessibility,  that,  judging  the  future  by  the  past,  it  is  not 
likely,  in  its  primeval  growth,  to  outlast  its  rarer  fellow- 
species. 

Happily  man  preserves  and  disseminates  as  well  as  destroys. 
The  species  will  doubtless  be  preserved  to  science,  and  For 
ornamental  and  other  uses,  in  its  own  and  other  lands :  and 
the  more  remarkable  individuals  of  the  present  day  are  likely 
to  be  sedulously  cared  for,  all  the  more  so  as  they  become 
scarce. 

Our  third  question  remains  to  be  answered  :  Have  these 
famous  Sequoias  played  in  former  times  and  upon  a  larger 
stage  a  more  imposing  part,  of  which  the  present  is  but  the 
epilogue?  We  cannot  gaze  high  up  the  huge  and  venerable 
trunks,  which  one  crosses  the  continent  to  behold,  without 
wishing  that  these  patriarchs  of  the  grove  were  able,  like  the 
long-lived  antediluvians  of    Scripture,  to  hand  down  to  us, 


148  ESS  A  YS. 

through  a  few  generations,  the  traditions  of  centuries,  and  so 
tell  us  something  of  the  history  of  their  race.  Fifteen  hun- 
dred annual  layers  have  been  counted,  or  satisfactorily  made 
out,  upon  one  or  two  fallen  trunks.  It  is  probable  that  close 
to  the  heart  of  some  of  the  living  trees  may  be  found  the 
circle  that  records  the  year  of  our  Saviour's  nativity.  A  few 
generations  of  such  trees  might  carry  the  history  a  long  way 
back.  But  the  ground  they  stand  upon,  and  the  marks  of 
very  recent  geological  change  and  vicissitude  in  the  region 
around,  testify  that  not  very  many  such  generations  can  have 
flourished  just  there,  at  least  in  an  unbroken  series.  When 
their  site  was  covered  by  glaciers,  these  Sequoias  must  have 
occupied  other  stations,  if,  as  there  is  reason  to  believe,  they 
then  existed  in  the  land. 

I  have  said  that  the  Redwoods  have  no  near  relatives  in 
the  country  of  their  abode,  and  none  of  their  genus  anywhere 
else.  Perhaps  something  may  be  learned  of  their  genealogy 
by  inquiring  of  such  relatives  as  they  have.  There  are  only 
two  of  any  particular  nearness  of  kin ;  and  they  are  far  away. 
One  is  the  Bald  Cypress,  our  southern  Cypress  (Taxodium), 
inhabiting  the  swamps  of  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maryland 
to  Texas,  thence  extending —  with,  probably,  a  specific  differ- 
ence —  into  Mexico.  It  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  largest 
trees  of  our  Atlantic  forest-district,  and  although  it  never  — 
except  perhaps  in  Mexico,  and  in  rare  instances  —  attains  the 
portliness  of  its  western  relatives,  yet  it  may  equal  them  in 
longevity.  The  other  relative  is  Glyptostrobus,  a  sort  of  modi- 
fied Taxodium,  being  about  as  much  like  our  Bald  Cypress  as 
one  species  of  Redwood  is  like  the  other. 

Now  species  of  the  same  type,  especially  when  few,  and  the 
type  peculiar,  are,  in  a  general  way,  associated  geographically, 
i.  e.,  inhabit  the  same  country,  or  (in  a  large  sense)  the  same 
region.  Where  it  is  not  so,  where  near  relatives  are  sepa- 
rated, there  is  usually  something  to  be  explained.  Here  is  an 
instance.  These  four  trees,  sole  representatives  of  their  tribe, 
dwell  almost  in  three  separate  quarters  of  the  world  :  the  two 
Redwoods  in  California,  the  Bald  Cypress  in  Atlantic  North 
America,  its  near  relative,  Glyptostrobus,  in  China. 


SEQUOIA    AND  ITS  HISTORY.  149 

It  was  not  always  so.  In  the  tertiary  period,  the  geologi- 
cal botanists  assure  us,  our  own  very  Taxodium  or  Bald 
Cypress,  and  a  Glyptostrobus,  exceedingly  like  the  present 
Chinese  tree,  and  more  than  one  Sequoia,  coexisted  in  a 
fourth  quarter  of  the  globe,  namely,  in  Europe !  This  brings 
up  the  question:  Is  it  possible  to  bridge  over  these  four  wide 
intervals  of  space  and  the  much  vaster  interval  of  time,  so 
as  to  bring  these  extraordinarily  separated  relatives  into  con- 
nection? The  evidence  which  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
this  question  is  various  and  widely  scattered.  I  bespeak  your 
patience  while  I  endeavor  to  bring  together,  in  an  abstract, 
the  most  important  points  of  it. 

Some  interesting  facts  may  come  out  by  comparing  gener- 
ally the  botany  of  the  three  remote  regions,  each  of  which  is 
the  sole  home  of  one  of  these  genera,  i.  e.,  Sequoia  in  Cali- 
fornia, Taxodium  in  the  Atlantic  United  States,1  and  Glypto- 
strobus in  China,  which  compose  the  whole  of  the  peculiar 
tribe  under  consideration. 

Note  then,  first,  that  there  is  another  set  of  three  or  four 
peculiar  trees,  in  this  case  of  the  Yew  family,  which  has  just 
the  same  peculiar  distribution,  and  which  therefore  may  have 
the  same  explanation,  whatever  that  explanation  be.  The 
genus  Torreya,  which  commemorates  our  botanical  Xestor 
and  a  former  president  of  this  association,  Dr.  Torrev.  was 
founded  upon  a  tree  rather  lately  discovered  (that  is,  about 
thirty-five  years  ago)  in  northern  Florida.  It  is  a  noble, 
Yew-like  tree,  and  very  local,  being,  so  far  as  known,  nearly 
confined  to  a  few  miles  along  the  shores  of  a  single  river.  It 
seems  as  if  it  had  somehow  been  crowded  down  out  of  the 
Alleghanies  into  its  present  limited  southern  quarters;  for 
in  cultivation  it  evinces  a  northern  hardiness.  Now  another 
species  of  Torreya  is  a  characteristic  tree  of  Japan  :  and  one 
very  like  it,  if  not  the  same,  inhabits  the  mountains  of  north- 

1  The  phrase  "  Atlantic  United  States  "  is  here  used  throughout  in 
contradistinction  to  Pacific  United  States.  To  the  former  of  course  he- 
longs,  botanically  and  geographically,  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  up  to  the  eastern  border  of  the  great  woodless  plains,  which 
constitute  an  intermediate  region. 


150  ESSA  YS. 

era  China,  —  belongs,  therefore,  to  the  eastern  Asiatic  tem- 
perate region,  of  which  northern  China  is  a  part,  and  Japan, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  portion  most  interesting  to  us.  There  is 
only  one  more  species  of  Torreya,  and  that  is  a  companion  of 
the  Redwoods  in  California.  It  is  the  tree  locally  known 
under  the  name  of  the  California  Nutmeg.  Here  are  three 
or  four  near  brethren,  species  of  the  same  genus,  known  no- 
where else  than  in  these  three  habitats. 

Moreover,  the  Torreya  of  Florida  is  associated  with  a  Yew ; 
and  the  trees  of  this  grove  are  the  only  Yew-trees  of  eastern 
North  America ;  for  the  Yew  of  our  northern  woods  is  a  de- 
cumbent shrub.  A  Yew-tree,  perhaps  the  same,  is  found  with 
Taxodium  in  the  temperate  parts  of  Mexico.  The  only  other 
Yews  in  America  grow  with  the  Redwoods  and  the  other 
Torreya  in  California,  and  extend  northward  into  Oregon. 
Yews  are  also  associated  with  Torreya  in  Japan  ;  and  they 
extend  westward  through  Mandchuria  and  the  Himalayas  to 
western  Europe,  and  even  to  the  Azores  Islands,  where  occurs 
the  common  Yew  of  the  Old  World. 

So  we  have  three  groups  of  coniferous  trees  which  agree  in 
this  peculiar  geographical  distribution,  with,  however,  a  nota- 
ble extension  of  ran^e  in  the  case  of  the  Yew :  first,  the  Red- 
woods,  and  their  relatives,  Taxodium  and  Glyptostrobus,  which 
differ  so  as  to  constitute  a  genus  for  each  of  the  three  regions  ; 
second,  the  Torreyas,  more  nearly  akin,  merely  a  different 
species  in  each  region ;  third,  the  Yews,  still  more,  closely  re- 
lated while  more  widely  disseminated,  of  which  it  is  yet  un- 
certain whether  they  constitute  seven,  five,  three,  or  only  one 
species.  Opinions  differ,  and  can  hardly  be  brought  to  any 
decisive  test.  However  it  be  determined,  it  may  still  be  said 
that  the  extreme  differences  among  the  Yews  do  not  surpass 
those  of  the  recognized  variations  of  the  European  Yew,  the 
cultivated  races  included. 

It  appears  to  me  that  these  several  instances  all  raise  the 
very  same  question,  only  with  different  degrees  of  emphasis, 
and,  if  to  be  explained  at  all,  will  have  the  same  kind  of  ex- 
planation. 

Continuing  the  comparison  between  the  three  regions  with 


SEQUOIA    AND   ITS  HISTORY.  151 

which  we  are  concerned,  we  note  that  each  has  its  own  species 
of  Pines,  Firs,  Larches,  etc.,  and  of  a  few  deciduous-leaved 
trees  such  as  Oaks  and  Maples ;  all  of  which  have  no  peculiar 
significance  for  the  present  purpose,  because  they  are  of 
genera  which  are  common  all  round  the  northern  hemisphere. 
Leaving  these  out  of  view,  the  noticeable  point  is  that  the 
vegetation  of  California  is  most  strikingly  unlike  that  of  the 
Atlantic  United  States.  They  possess  some  plants,  and  some 
peculiarly  American  plants  in  common,  —  enough  to  show,  as 
I  imagine,  that  the  difficulty  was  not  in  the  getting  from  the 
one  district  to  the  other,  or  into  both  from  a  common  source, 
but  in  abiding  there.  The  primordially  unbroken  forest  of 
Atlantic  North  America,  nourished  by  rainfall  distributed 
throughout  the  year,  is  widely  separated  from  the  western  re- 
gion of  sparse  and  discontinuous  tree-belts  of  the  same  latitude 
on  the  western  side  of  the  continent,  where  summer  rain  is 
wanting,  or  nearly  so,  by  immense  treeless  plains  and  plateaux 
of  more  or  less  aridity,  traversed  by  longitudinal  mountain 
ranges  of  similar  character.  Their  nearest  approach  is  at  the 
north,  in  the  latitude  of  Lake  Superior,  where,  on  a  more 
rainy  line,  trees  of  the  Atlantic  forest  and  that  of  Oregon 
may  be  said  to  interchange.  The  change  of  species  and 
of  the  aspect  of  vegetation  in  crossing,  say  on  the  forty- 
seventh  parallel,  is  slight  in  comparison  with  that  on  the 
thirty-seventh  or  near  it.  Confiding  our  attention  to  the  lower 
latitude,  and  under  the  exceptions  already  specially  noted, 
we  may  say  that  almost  every  characteristic  form  in  the  vege- 
tation of  the  Atlantic  States  is  wanting  in  California,  and 
the  characteristic  plants  and  trees  of  California  are  wanting 
here. 

California  has  no  Magnolia  nor  Tulip  trees,  nor  Star-anise- 
tree  ;  no  so-called  Papaw  (Asimina)  ;  no  Barberry  of  the 
common  single-leaved  sort ;  no  Podophyllum  or  other  of  the 
peculiar  associated  genera;  no  Nelumbo  nor  White  Water- 
lily  ;  no  Prickly  Ash  nor  Sumach ;  no  Loblolly-bay  nor 
Stuartia ;  no  Basswood  nor  Linden-trees  ;  neither  Locust, 
Honey-locust,  Coffee-trees  (Gymnocladus),  nor  Yellow-wood 
(Cladrastis)  ;  nothing   answering  to    Hydrangea  or    Witch- 


152  ESSAYS. 

hazel,  to  Gum-trees  (Nyssa  and  Liquidarnbar),  Viburnum  or 
Diervilla ;  it  has  few  Asters  and  Golden-rods  ;  no  Lobelias  ; 
no  Huckleberries  and  hardly  any  Blueberries  ;  no  Epigaea, 
the  charm  of  our  earliest  eastern  spring,  tempering  an  icy  April 
wind  with  a  delicious  wild  fragrance  ;  no  Kalmia  nor  Clethra, 
nor  Holly,  nor  Persimmon ;  no  Catalpa-tree,  nor  Trumpet- 
creeper  (Tecoma)  ;  nothing  answering  to  Sassafras,  nor  to 
Benzoin-tree,  nor  to  Hickory  ;  neither  Mulberry  nor  Elm ;  no 
Beech,  true  Chestnut,  Hornbeam,  nor  Ironwood,  nor  a  proper 
Birch-tree ;  and  the  enumeration  might  be  continued  very 
much  further  by  naming  herbaceous  plants  and  others  familiar 
only  to  botanists. 

In  their  place  California  is  filled  with  plants  of  other  types, 

—  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbs,  of  which  I  will  only  remark  that 
they  are,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  as  different  from  the 
plants  of  the  eastern  Asiatic  region  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned (Japan,  China,  and  Mandchuria),  as  they  are  from 
those  of  Atlantic  North  America.  Their  near  relatives,  when 
they  have  any  in  other  lands,  are  mostly  southward,  on  the 
Mexican  plateau,  or  many  as  far  south  as  Chili.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  the  plants  of  the  intervening  great  plains,  ex- 
cept that  northward  and  in  the  subsaline  vegetation  there  are 
some  close  alliances  with  the  flora  of  the  steppes  of  Siberia. 
And  along  the  crests  of  high  mountain  ranges  the  arctic-alpine 
flora  has  sent  southward  more  or  less  numerous  representa- 
tives through  the  whole  length  of  the  country. 

If  we  now  compare,  as  to  their  flora  generally,  the  Atlantic 
United  States  with  Japan,  Mandchuria,  and  northern  China, 

—  i.  e.,  eastern  North  America  with  eastern  north  Asia,  half 
the  earth's  circumference  apart,  —  we  find  an  astonishing 
similarity.  The  larger  part  of  the  genera  of  our  own  region, 
which  I  have  enumerated  as  wanting  in  California,  are  present 
in  Japan  or  Mandchuria,  along  with  many  other  peculiar 
plants,  divided  between  the  two.  There  are  plants  enough  of 
the  one  region  which  have  no  representatives  in  the  other. 
There  are  types  which  appear  to  have  reached  the  Atlantic 
States  from  the  south  ;  and  there  is  a  larger  infusion  of  sub- 
tropical   Asiatic    types    into    temperate    China   and    Japan ; 


SEQUOIA    AND  ITS   HISTORY.  153 

among  these  there  is  no  relationship  between  the  two  coun- 
tries to  speak  of.  There  are  also,  as  I  have  already  said,  no 
small  number  of  genera  and  some  species  which,  being  com- 
mon all  round  or  partly  round  the  northern  temperate  zone, 
have  no  special  significance  because  of  their  occurrence  in 
these  two  antipodal  floras,  although  they  have  testimony  to 
bear  upon  the  general  question  of  geographical  distribution. 
The  point  to  be  remarked  is,  that  many,  or  even  most,  of  the 
genera  and  species  which  are  peculiar  to  North  America  as 
compared  with  Europe,  and  largely  peculiar  to  Atlantic  North 
America  as  compared  with  the  Californian  region,  are  also 
represented  in  Japan  and  Mandchuria,  either  by  identical  or 
by  closely  similar  forms.  The  same  rule  holds  on  a  more 
northward  line,  although  not  so  strikingly.  If  we  compare 
the  plants,  say  of  New  England  and  Pennsylvania  (hit.  45°- 
47°),  with  those  of  Oregon,  and  then  with  those  of  north- 
eastern Asia,  we  shall  find  many  of  our  own  curiously  re- 
peated in  the  latter,  while  only  a  small  number  of  them  can  be 
traced  along  the  route  even  so  far  as  the  western  slope  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  And  these  repetitions  of  east  American 
types  in  Japan  and  neighboring  districts  are  in  all  degrees 
of  likeness.  Sometimes  the  one  is  undistinguishable  from 
the  other ;  sometimes  there  is  a  difference  of  aspect,  but 
hardly  of  tangible  character  ;  sometimes  the  two  woidd  be 
termed  marked  varieties  if  they  grew  naturally  in  the  same 
forest  or  in  the  same  region ;  sometimes  they  are  what  the 
botanist  calls  representative  species,  the  one  answering  closely 
to  the  other,  but  with  some  differences  regarded  as  specific  : 
sometimes  the  two  are  merely  of  the  same  genus,  or  not  quite 
that,  but  of  a  single  or  very  few  species  in  each  country  ; 
when  the  point  which  interests  us  is.  that  this  peculiar  lim- 
ited type  should  occur  in  two  antipodal  places,  and  nowhere 
else. 

It  would  be  tedious,  and,  except  to  botanists,  abstruse,  to 
enumerate  instances ;  yet  the  whole  strength  of  the  case  de- 
pends upon  the  number  of  such  instances.  I  propose  there- 
fore, if  the  Association  does  me  the  honor  to  print  this  dis- 
course, to  append  in  a  note  a  list  of  the   more   remarkable 


154  ESS  A  YS. 

ones.1  But  I  would  here  mention  certain  cases  as  speci- 
mens. 

Our  Rhus  Toxicodendron,  or  Poison  Ivy,  is  very  exactly 
repeated  in  Japan,  but  is  found  in  no  other  part  of  the  world, 
although  a  species  much  like  it  abounds  in  California.  Our 
other  poisonous  Rhus  (7?.  venenata),  commonly  called  Poison 
Dogwood,  is  in  no  way  represented  in  western  America,  but 
has  so  close  an  analogue  in  Japan  that  the  two  were  taken 
for  the  same  by  Thunberg  and  Linnaeus,  who  called  them  both 
JR.  Vernix. 

Our  northern  Fox-grape,  Vitis  Labrusca,  is  wholly  con- 
fined to  the  Atlantic  States,  except  that  it  reappears  in  Japan 
and  that  region. 

The  original  Wistaria  is  a  woody  leguminous  climber  with 
showy  blossoms,  native  to  the  middle  Atlantic  States  ;  the 
other  species,  which  we  so  much  prize  in  cultivation,  W, 
Sinensis,  is  from  China,  as  its  name  denotes,  or  perhaps  only 
from  Japan,  where  it  is  certainly  indigenous. 

Our  Yellow- wood  (Cladrastis)  inhabits  a  very  limited  dis- 
trict on  the  western  slope  of  the  Alleghanies.  Its  only  and 
very  near  relative,  Maackia,  is  in  Mandchuria. 

The  Hydrangeas  have  some  species  in  our  Alleghany  re- 
gion ;  all  the  rest  belong  to  the  Chino-Japanese  region  and 
its  continuation  westward.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Phila- 
delphus,  except  that  there  are  one  or  two  mostly  very  similar 
species  in  California  and  Oregon. 

Our  Blue  Cohosh  (Caulophyllum)  is  confined  to  the  woods 
of  the  Atlantic  States,  but  has  lately  been  discovered  in 
Japan.2  A  peculiar  relative  of  it,  Diphylleia,  confined  to  the 
higher  Alleghanies,  is  also  repeated  in  Japan,  with  a  slight 
difference,  so  that  it  may  barely  be  distinguished  as  another 
species.  Another  relative  is  our  Twin-leaf  (Jeffersonia)  of 
the  Alleghany  region  alone ;  a  second  species  has  lately  turned 
up  in  Mandchuria.  A  relative  of  this  is  Podophyllum,  our 
Mandrake,  a  common  inhabitant  of  the  Atlantic  United 
States,  but  found  nowhere  else.  There  is  one  other  species 
of  it,  and  that  is  in  the  Himalayas.  Here  are  four  most 
1  See  Appendix,  I.  2  Appendix,  II. 


SEQUOIA    AND   ITS   HISTORY.  155 

peculiar  genera  of  one  family,  each  of  a  single  species  in  the 
Atlantic  United  States,  which  are  duplicated  on  the  other 
side  of  the  world,  either  in  identical  species,  or  in  an  analo- 
gous species,  while  nothing  else  of  the  kind  is  known  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world. 

I  ought  not  to  omit  Ginseng,  the  root  so  prized  by  the 
Chinese,  which  they  obtained  from  their  northern  provinces 
and  Mandchuria,  and  which  is  now  known  to  inhabit  Corea 
and  northern  Japan.  The  Jesuit  Fathers  identified  the  plant 
in  Canada  and  the  Atlantic  States,  brought  over  the  Chinese 
name  by  which  we  know  it,  and  established  the  trade  in  it, 
which  was  for  many  years  most  profitable.  The  exportation 
of  Ginseng  to  China  probably  has  not  yet  entirely  ceased. 
Whether  the  Asiatic  and  the  Atlantic  American  Ginsengs 
are  to  be  regarded  as  of  the  same  species  or  not  is  somewhat 
uncertain,  but  they  are  hardly,  if  at  all,  distinguishable. 

There  is  a  shrub,  Elliottia,  which  is  so  rare  and  local  that 
it  is  known  only  at  two  stations  on  the  Savannah  Kiver,  in 
Georgia.  It  is  of  peculiar  structure,  and  was  without  near 
relative  until  one  was  lately  discovered  in  Japan  (Tripeta- 
leia),  so  like  it  as  hardly  to  be  distinguishable  except  by  hav- 
ing the  parts  of  the  blossom  in  threes  instead  of  fours,  —  a 
difference  which  is  not  uncommon  in  the  same  genus,  or  even 
in  the  same  species. 

Suppose  Elliottia  had  happened  to  be  collected  only  once, 
a  good  while  ago,  and  all  knowledge  of  the  limited  and  obscure 
locality  were  lost;  and  meanwhile  the  Japanese  form  came  t<> 
be  known.  Such  a  case  would  be  parallel  with  an  actual  one. 
A  specimen  of  a  peculiar  plant  (Short iff  galacifolia)  was 
detected  in  the  herbarium  of  the  elder  Michaux,  who  collected 
it  (as  his  autograph  ticket  shows)  somewhere  in  the  higb 
Alleghany  Mountains,  more  than  eighty  years  ago.  No  one 
has  seen  the  living  plant  since  or  knows  where  to  find  it,  if 
haply  it  still  flourishes  in  some  secluded  spot.  At  length  it 
is  found  in  Japan ;  and  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  making  the 
identification.1  One  other  relative  is  also  known  in  Japan  ; 
and  another,  still  unpublished,  has  just  been  detected  in 
Thibet. 


156  ESS  A  YS. 

Whether  the  Japanese  and  the  Alleghanian  plants  are 
exactly  the  same  or  not,  it  needs  complete  specimens  of  the 
two  to  settle.  So  far  as  we  know,  they  are  just  alike ;  and 
even  if  some  difference  were  discerned  between  them,  it  would 
not  appreciably  alter  the  question  as  to  how  such  a  result 
came  to  pass.  Each  and  every  one  of  the  analogous  cases  I 
have  been  detailing  —  and  very  many  more  could  be  men- 
tioned—  raises  the  same  question,  and  would  be  satisfied 
with  the  same  answer. 

These  singular  relations  attracted  my  curiosity  early  in  the 
course  of  my  botanical  studies,  when  comparatively  few  of 
them  were  known,  and  my  serious  attention  in  later  years, 
when  I  had  numerous  and  new  Japanese  plants  to  study  in 
the  collections  made  by  Messrs.  Williams  and  Morrow,  dur- 
ing Commodore  Perry's  visit  in  1853,  and  especially  by  Mr. 
Charles  Wright,  in  Commodore  Rodgers's  expedition  in  1855. 
I  then  discussed  this  subject  somewhat  fully,  and  tabulated 
the  facts  within  my  reach.1 

This  was  before  Heer  had  developed  the  rich  fossil  botany 
of  the  arctic  zone,  before  the  immense  antiquity  of  existing 
species  of  plants  was  recognized,  and  before  the  publication 
of  Darwin's  now  famous  volume  on  the  "  Origin  of  Species  " 
had  introduced  and  familiarized  the  scientific  world  with  those 
now  current  ideas  respecting  the  history  and  vicissitudes  of 
species  with  which  I  attempted  to  deal  in  a  moderate  and 
feeble  way. 

My  speculation  was  based  upon  the  former  glaciation  of  the 
northern  temperate  zone,  and  the  inference  of  a  warmer  period 
preceding  and  perhaps  following.  I  considered  that  our  own 
present  vegetation,  or  its  proximate  ancestry,  must  have  occu- 
pied the  arctic  and  subarctic  regions  in  pliocene  times,  and 
that  it  had  been  gradually  pushed  southward  as  the  tempera- 
ture lowered  and  the  glaciation  advanced,  even  be}rond  its 
present  habitation ;  that  plants  of  the  same  stock  and  kindred, 
probably  ranging  round  the  arctic  zone  as  the  present  arctic 
species  do,  made  their  forced  migration  southward  upon  widely 
different  longitudes,  and  receded  more  or  less  as  the  climate 
1  "Mem.  Amer.  Acad.,"  vol.  vi.  pp.  377-458  (1859). 


SEQUOIA    AND   ITS  HISTORY.  Vol 

grew  warmer;  that  the  general  difference  of  climate  which 

marks  the  eastern  and  the  western  sides  of  the  continents 

the  one  extreme,  the  other  mean  —  was  doubtless  even  then 
established,  so  that  the  same  species  and  the  same  sorts  of 
species  would  be  likely  to  secure  and  retain  foothold  in  the 
similar  climates  of  Japan  and  the  Atlantic  United  States,  but 
not  in  intermediate  regions  of  different  distribution  of  heat 
and  moisture;  so  that  different  species  of  the  same  genus,  as 
in  Torreya,  or  different  genera  of  the  same  group,  as  Red- 
wood, Taxodium,  and  Glyptostrobus,  or  different  associations 
of  forest  trees,  might  establish  themselves  each  in  the  region 
best  suited  to  their  particular  requirements,  while  they  would 
fail  to  do  so  in  any  other.  These  views  implied  that  the 
sources  of  our  actual  vegetation  and  the  explanation  of  these 
peculiarities  were  to  be  sought  in,  and  presupposed,  an  ances- 
try in  pliocene  or  still  earlier  times,  occupying  the  higher 
northern  regions.  And  it  was  thought  that  the  occurrence  of 
peculiarly  North  American  genera  in  Europe  in  the  tertiary 
period  (such  as  Taxodium,  Carya,  Liquidambar,  Sassafras, 
Negundo,  etc.),  might  be  best  explained  on  the  assumption  of 
early  interchange  and  diffusion  through  north  Asia,  rather 
than  by  that  of  the  fabled  Atlantis. 

The  hypothesis  supposed  a  gradual  modification  of  species 
in  different  directions  under  altering  conditions,  at  least  to 
the  extent  of  producing  varieties,  sub-species,  and  representa- 
tive species,  as  they  may  be  variously  regarded  ;  likewise  the 
single  and  local  origination  of  each  type,  which  is  now  almost 
universally  taken  for  granted. 

The  remarkable  facts  in  regard  to  the  eastern  American 
and  Asiatic  floras  which  these  speculations  were  to  explain 
have  since  increased  in  number,  more  especially  through  the 
admirable  collections  of  Dr.  Maximowicz  in  Japan  and  adja- 
cent countries,  and  the  critical  comparisons  he  has  made  and 
is  still  engaged  upon. 

I  am  bound  to  state  that,  in  a  recent  general  work  '  by 
a  distinguished   European   botanist,  Professor   Grisebach,  of 

1  "  Die  Vegetation  der  Erde  nach  ihrer  klimatischen  Anordnun^." 
1871. 


158  ESS  A  YS. 

Gottingen,  these  facts  have  been  emptied  of  all  special  sig- 
nificance, and  the  relations  between  the  Japanese  and  the 
Atlantic  United  States  flora  declared  to  be  no  more  intimate 
than  might  be  expected  from  the  situation,  climate,  and  pres- 
ent opportunity  of  interchange.  This  extraordinary  conclu- 
sion is  reached  by  regarding  as  distinct  species  all  the  plants 
common  to  both  countries  between  which  any  differences  have 
been  discerned,  although  such  differences  would  probably 
count  for  little  if  the  two  inhabited  the  same  country,  thus 
transferring  many  of  my  list  of  identical  to  that  of  representa- 
tive species ;  and  then  by  simply  eliminating  from  considera- 
tion the  whole  array  of  representative  species,  i,  c,  all  cases 
in  which  the  Japanese  and  the  American  plant  are  not  ex- 
actly alike.  As  if,  by  pronouncing  the  cabalistic  word  species, 
the  question  were  settled,  or  rather  the  greater  part  of  it  re- 
manded out  of  the  domain  of  science  ;  as  if,  while  complete 
identity  of  forms  implied  community  of  origin,  any  thing- 
short  of  it  carried  no  presumption  of  the  kind ;  so  leaving  all 
these  singular  duplicates  to  be  wondered  at,  indeed,  but  wholly 
beyond  the  reach  of  inquiry.1 

Now  the  only  known  cause  of  such  likeness  is  inheritance ; 
and  as  all  transmission  of  likeness  is  with  some  difference  in 
individuals,  and  as  changed  conditions  have  resulted,  as  is 
well  known,  in  very  considerable  differences,  it  seems  to  me 
that,  if  the  high  antiquity  of  our  actual  vegetation  could  be 
rendered  probable,  not  to  say  certain,  and  the  former  habita- 
tion of  any  of  our  species  or  of  very  near  relatives  of  them  in 
high  northern  regions  could  be  ascertained,  my  whole  case 
would  be  made  out.  The  needful  facts,  of  which  I  was  igno- 
rant when  my  essay  was  published,  have  now  been  for  some 
years  made  known,  —  thanks,  mainly,  to  the  researches  of 
Heer  upon  ample  collections  of  arctic  fossil  plants.  These 
are  confirmed  and  extended  by  new  investigations,  by  Heer 
and  Lesquereux,  the  results  of  which  have  been  indicated  to 
me  by  the  latter.2 

1  See  Appendix,  II. 

2  Reference  should  also  be  made  to  the  extensive  researches  of  New- 
berry upon  the   tertiary  and  cretaceous  floras  of   the    western  United 


SEQUOIA    AND   ITS   HISTORY.  159 

The  Taxodiura,  which  everywhere  abounds  in  the  miocene 
formations  in  Europe,  has  been  specifically  identified,  first  by 
Gceppert,  then  by  I  leer,  with  our  common  Cypress  of  the 
southern  States.  It  has  been  found  fossil  in  Spitzbergen, 
Greenland,  and  Alaska,  —  in  the  latter  country  along  with  the 
remains  of  another  form,  distinguishable,  but  very  like  the 
common  species;  and  this  has  been  identified  by  Lesquereux 
in  the  miocene  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  So  there  is  one 
species  of  tree  which  has  come  down  essentially  unchanged 
from  the  tertiary  period,  which  for  a  long  while  inhabited 
both  Europe  and  North  America,  and  also,  at  some  part  of 
the  period,  the  region  which  geographically  connects  the  two 
(once  doubtless  much  more  closely  than  now),  but  which  has 
survived  only  in  the  Atlantic  United  States  and  Mexico. 

The  same  Sequoia  which  abounds  in  the  same  miocene  for- 
mations in  northern  Europe  has  been  abundantly  found  in 
those  of  Iceland,  Spitzbergen,  Greenland,  Mackenzie  River, 
and  Alaska.  It  is  named  S.  Longsdorjii,  but  is  pronounced 
to  be  very  much  like  S.  sempervirens,  our  living  Redwood  of 
the  Californian  coast,  and  to  be  the  ancient  representative 
of  it.  Fossil  specimens  of  a  similar,  if  not  the  same,  species 
have  recently  been  detected  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  by  I  lav- 
den,  and  determined  by  our  eminent  palaeontological  bota- 
nist Lesquereux ;  and  he  assures  me  that  he  has  the  common 
Redwood  itself  from  Oregon  in  a  deposit  of  tertiary  age. 
Another  Sequoia  (£.  Sternbergii^),  discovered  in  miocene  de- 
posits in  Greenland,  is  pronounced  to  be  the  representative  of 
S.  gigantea,  the  Big  Tree  of  the  Californian  Sierra.     If  the 

States.  See  especially  Professor  Newberry's  Paper  in  the  "  Boston  Jour- 
nal of  Natural  History,"  vol.  vii.  No.  4,  describing  fossil  plants  of  Van- 
couver's Island,  etc.  ;  his  "Notes  on  the  Later  Extinct  Floras  of  North 
America,"  etc.,  in  "Annals  of  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History,"  vol.  ix., 
April,  1868  ;  "  Report  on  the  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  Plants  collected  in 
Raynolds  and  Hayden's  Yellowstone  and  Missouri  Exploring  Expedition, 
1859-1860,"  published  in  1869  ;  and  an  interesting  article  entitled  "  The 
Ancient  Lakes  of  Western  America,  their  Deposits  and  Drainage,"  pub- 
lished  in  "The  American  Naturalist,"  January,  1871. 

The  only  document  I  was  able  to  consult  was  Lesquereux's  Report  on 
the  Fossil  Plants,  in  Hayden's  Report  of  1872. 


160  ESSA  YS. 

Taxodium  of  the  tertiary  time  in  Europe  and  throughout  the 
arctic  regions  is  the  ancestor  of  our  present  Bald  Cypress,  — 
which  is  assumed  in  regarding  them  as  specifically  identical, 
—  then  I  think  we  may,  with  our  present  light,  fairly  assume 
that  the  two  Redwoods  of  California  are  the  direct  or  col- 
lateral descendants  of  the  two  ancient  species  which  so  closely 
resemble  them. 

The  forests  of  the  arctic  zone  in  tertiary  times  contained  at 
least  three  other  species  of  Sequoia,  as  determined  by  their 
remains,  one  of  which,  from  Spitzbergen,  also  much  resembles 
the  common  Redwood  of  California.  Another,  "  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  commonest  coniferous  tree  on  Disco," 
was  common  in  England  and  some  other  parts  of  Europe.  So 
the  Sequoias,  now  remarkable  for  their  restricted  station  and 
numbers,  as  well  as  for  their  extraordinary  size,  are  of  an 
ancient  stock :  their  ancestors  and  kindred  formed  a  large 
part  of  the  forests,  which  flourished  throughout  the  polar  re- 
gions, now  desolate  and  ice-clad,  and  which  extended  into  low 
latitudes  in  Europe.  On  this  continent  one  species,  at  least, 
had  reached  to  the  vicinity  of  its  present  habitat  before  the 
glaciation  of  the  region.  Among  the  fossil  specimens  already 
found  in  California,  but  which  our  trustworthy  palaeontologi- 
cal  botanist  has  not  yet  had  time  to  examine,  we  may  expect 
to  find  evidence  of  the  early  arrival  of  these  two  Redwoods 
upon  the  ground  which  they  now,  after  much  vicissitude, 
scantily  occupy. 

Differences  of  climate,  or  circumstances  of  migration,  or 
both,  must  have  determined  the  survival  of  Sequoia  upon  the 
Pacific,  and  of  Taxodium  upon  the  Atlantic  coast.  And  still 
the  Redwoods  will  not  stand  in  the  east,  nor  could  our  Taxo- 
dium find  a  congenial  station  in  California.  Both  have  prob- 
ably had  their  opportunity  in  the  olden  time,  and  failed. 

As  to  the  remaining  near  relative  of  Sequoia,  the  Chinese 
Glyptostrobus,  a  species  of  it,  and  its  veritable  representative, 
was  contemporaneous  with  Sequoia  and  Taxodium,  not  only 
in  temperate  Europe,  but  throughout  the  arctic  regions  from 
Greenland  to  Alaska.  According  to  Newberry,  it  was  abun- 
dantly represented  in  the  miocene  flora  of  the  temperate  zone 
of  our  own  continent,  from  Nebraska  to  the  Pacific. 


SEQUOIA    AND  ITS  HISTORY.  161 

Very  similar  would  seem  to  have  been  the  fate  of  a  more 
familiar  gymnospermous  tree,  the  Gingko  or  Salisburia.  It 
is  now  indigenous  to  Japan  only.  Its  ancestor,  as  we  may 
fairly  call  it,  —  since,  according  to  Heer,  "  it  corresponds  so 
entirely  with  the  living  species  that  it  can  scarcely  be  sepa- 
rated from  it,"  —  once  inhabited  northern  Europe  and  the 
whole  arctic  region  round  to  Alaska,  and  had  even  a  repre- 
sentative farther  south,  in  our  Rocky  Mountain  district.  For 
some  reason,  this  and  Glyptostrobus  survive  only  on  the 
shores  of  eastern  Asia. 

Libocedrus,  on  the  other  hand,  appears  to  have  cast  in  its 
lot  with  the  Sequoias.  Two  species,  according  to  Heer,  were 
with  them  in  Spitzbergen.  L.  decurrens,  the  Incense  Cedar, 
is  one  of  the  noblest  associates  of  the  present  lied  woods. 
But  all  the  rest  are  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  two  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  Andes,  two  in  the  South  Sea  Is- 
lands. It  is  only  by  bold  and  far-reaching  suppositions  that 
they  can  be  geographically  associated. 

The  genealogy  of  the  Torreyas  is  still  wholly  obscure  ;  yet 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  Yew-like  trees,  named  Taxites,  which 
flourished  with  the  Sequoias  in  the  tertiary  arctic  forests,  are 
the  remote  ancestors  of  the  three  species  of  Torreya,  now 
severally  in  Florida,  in  California,  and  in  Japan. 

As  to  the  Pines  and  Firs,  these  were  more  numerously  as- 
sociated with  the  ancient  Sequoias  of  the  polar  forests  than 
with  their  present  representatives,  but  in  different  species, 
apparently  more  like  those  of  eastern  than  of  western  North 
America.  They  must  have  encircled  the  polar  zone  then,  as 
they  encircle  the  present  temperate  zone  now. 

I  must  refrain  from  all  enumeration  of  the  angiospermous 
or  ordinary  deciduous  trees  and  shrubs,  which  are  now 
known,  by  their  fossil  remains,  to  have  flourished  throughout 
the  polar  regions  when  Greenland  better  deserved  its  name 
and  enjoyed  the  present  climate  of  New  England  and  New 
Jersey.  Then  Greenland  and  the  rest  of  the  north  abounded 
with  Oaks,  representing  the  several  groups  of  species  which 
now  inhabit  both  our  eastern  and  western  forest  districts  ; 
several  Poplars,  one  very  like  our  Balsam  Poplar,  or  Balm  of 


162  ESSAYS. 

Gilead-tree ;  more  Beeches  than  there  are  now,  a  Hornbeam, 
and  a  Hop-Hornbeam,  some  Birches,  a  Persimmon,  and  a 
Planer-tree,  near  representatives  of  those  of  the  Old  World, 
at  least  of  Asia,  as  well  as  of  Atlantic  North  America,  but 
all  wanting  in  California  ;  one  Juglans  like  the  Walnut  of 
the  Old  World,  and  another  like  our  Black  Walnut ;  two  or 
three  Grapevines,  one  near  our  southern  Fox  Grape  or  Mus- 
cadine, another  near  our  northern  Frost  Grape  ;  a  Tilia,  very- 
like  our  Basswood  of  the  Atlantic  States  only  :  a  Liquidam- 
bar  ;  a  Magnolia,  which  recalls  our  M.  grandiflora  ;  a  Lirio- 
dendron,  sole  representative  of  our  Tulip-tree ;  and  a  Sassa- 
fras, very  like  the  living  tree. 

Most  of  these,  it  will  be  noticed,  have  their  nearest  or  their 
only  living  representatives  in  the  Atlantic  States,  and  when 
elsewhere,  mainly  in  eastern  Asia.  Several  of  them,  or  of 
species  like  them,  have  been  detected  in  our  tertiary  deposits, 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  by  Newberry  and  Lesquereux.  Her- 
baceous plants,  as  it  happens,  are  rarely  preserved  in  a  fossil 
state,  else  they  would  probably  supply  additional  testimony 
to  the  antiquity  of  our  existing  vegetation,  its  wide  diffusion 
over  the  northern  and  now  frigid  zone,  and  its  enforced  mi- 
gration under  changes  of  climate.1 

Concluding,  then,  as  we  must,  that  our  existing  vegetation 
is  a  continuation  of  that  of  the  tertiary  period,  may  we  sup- 
pose that  it  absolutely  originated  then  ?  Evident!}'  not.  The 
preceding  cretaceous  period  has  furnished  to  Carruthers  in 
Europe  a  fossil  fruit  like  that  of  the  Sequoia  gigantea  of  the 
famous  groves,  associated  with  Pines  of  the  same  character  as 
those  that  accompany  the  present  tree  ;  has  furnished  to  Heer, 

1  There  is  at  least  one  instance  so  opportune  to  the  present  argument 
that  it  should  not  pass  unnoticed,  although  I  had  overlooked  the  record 
until  now.  Onoclea  sensibilis  is  a  Fern  peculiar  to  the  Atlantic  United 
States  (where  it  is  common  and  widespread)  and  to  Japan.  Professor 
Newberry  identified  it  several  years  ago  in  a  collection  obtained  by  Dr. 
Hayden  of  miocene  fossil  plants  of  Dacota  Territory,  which  is  far  be- 
yond its  present  habitat.  He  moreover  regards  it  as  probably  identical 
with  a  fossil  specimen  "  described  by  the  late  Professor  E.  Forbes,  under 
the  name  of  Filicites  Hebridicus,  and  obtained  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  from 
the  Island  of  Mull." 


SEQUOIA   AND  ITS  HISTORY.  1G3 

from  Greenland,  two  more  Sequoias,  one  of  them  identical 
with  a  tertiary  species,  and  one  nearly  allied  to  Sequoia 
Langsdorfii,  which  in  turn  is  a  probable  ancestor  of  the 
common  Californian  Redwood  ;  has  furnished  to  Newberry 
and  Lesquereux  in  North  America  the  remains  of  another 
ancient  Sequoia,  a  Glyptostrobus,  a  Liquidambar  which  well 
represents  our  Sweet  Gum,  Oaks  analogous  to  living  ones, 
leaves  of  a  Plane-tree,  which  are  also  in  the  tertiary  and  are 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  our  own  Platanus  occidentalism 
of  a  Magnolia  and  a  Tulip-tree,  and  "  of  a  Sassafras  undis- 
tinguishable  from  our  living  species."  I  need  not  continue 
the  enumeration.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  facts  justify  the 
conclusion  which  Lesquereux  —  a  scrupulous  investigator  — 
has  already  announced :  "  that  the  essential  types  of  our 
actual  flora  are  marked  in  the  cretaceous  period,  and  have 
come  to  us  after  passing,  without  notable  changes,  through 
the  tertiary  formations  of  our  continent." 

According  to  these  views,  as  regards  plants  at  least,  the 
adaptation  to  successive  times  and  changed  conditions  has 
been  maintained,  not  by  absolute  renewals,  but  by  gradual 
modifications.  I,  for  one,  cannot  doubt  that  the  present  ex- 
isting species  are  the  lineal  successors  of  those  that  garnished 
the  earth  in  the  old  time  before  them,  and  that  they  were  as 
well  adapted  to  their  surroundings  then,  as  those  which  flour- 
ish and  bloom  around  us  are  to  their  conditions  now.  Order 
and  exquisite  adaptation  did  not  wait  for  man's  coming,  nor 
were  they  ever  stereotyped.  Organic  nature,  —  by  which  I 
mean  the  system  and  totality  of  living  things,  and  their  adap- 
tation to  each  other  and  to  the  world,  —  with  all  its  apparent 
and  indeed  real  stability,  should  be  likened,  not  to  the  ocean, 
which  varies  only  by  tidal  oscillations  from  a  fixed  level  to 
which  it  is  always  returning,  but  rather  to  a  river,  so  vast 
that  we  can  neither  discern  its  shores  nor  reach  its  sooroea, 
whose  onward  flow  is  not  less  actual  because  too  6low  to  be 
observed  by  the  ephemera?  which  hover  over  its  surface,  or 
are  borne  upon  its  bosom. 

Such  ideas  as  these,  though  still  repugnant  to  some,  and 
not  long  since  to  many,  have  so  possessed  the  minds  of  the 


164  ESS  A  YS. 

naturalists  of  the  present  day,  that  hardly  a  discourse  can  be 
pronounced  or  an  investigation  prosecuted  without  reference 
to  them.  I  suppose  that  the  views  here  taken  are  little,  if  at 
all,  in  advance  of  the  average  scientific  mind  of  the  day.  I 
cannot  regard  them  as  less  noble  than  those  which  they  are 
succeeding. 

An  able  philosophical  writer,  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe, 
has  recently  and  truthfully  said  :  1 

"  It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  when  we  can  find  out  how  any- 
thing- is  done,  our  first  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  God  did 
not  do  it.  No  matter  how  wonderful,  how  beautiful,  how  in- 
timately complex  and  delicate  has  been  the  machinery  which 
has  worked,  perhaps  for  centuries,  perhaps  for  millions  of 
ages,  to  bring  about  some  beneficent  result,  if  we  can  but 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  wheels  its  divine  character  disappears." 

I  agree  with  the  writer  that  this  first  conclusion  is  prema- 
ture and  unworthy,  —  I  will  add,  deplorable.  Through  what 
faults  or  infirmities  of  dogmatism  on  the  one  hand,  and  skep- 
ticism on  the  other,  it  came  to  be  so  thought,  we  need  not 
here  consider.^  Let  us  hope,  and  I  confidently  expect,  that  it 
is  not  to  last ;  that  the  religious  faith  which  survived  without 
a  shock  the  notion  of  the  fixity  of  the  earth  itself  may  equally 
outlast  the  notion  of  the  absolute  fixity  of  the  species  which 
inhabit  it ;  that  in  the  future  even  more  than  in  the  past, 
faith  in  an  order,  which  is  the  basis  of  science,  will  not  —  as 
it  cannot  reasonably  —  be  dissevered  from  faith  in  an  Or- 
dainer,  which  is  the  basis  of  religion. 


APPENDIX. 

I. 

In  the  following  table  the  names  in  the  left-hand  column  are  from 
my  "  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United  States,"  and 
from  Dr.  Chapman's  "  Flora  of  the  Southern  United  States,"  the 
two  together  comprehending  the  flora  of  the  Atlantic  United  States 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Alpine  plants  on  the  one  hand,  and 
subtropical  plants  on  the  other,  are  excluded. 

1  "Darwinism  in  Morals,"  in  "Theological  Review,"  April,  1871. 


APPENDIX. 


165 


The  entries  in  the  middle  column,  when  there  are  any,  are  of 
identical  or  representative  species  occurring  in  Oregon  or  California. 

Those  in  the  right-hand  column  are  of  such  species  in  Japan,  or 
other  parts  of  northeastern  Asia,  including  the  Himalayas  and  Sibe- 
ria as  far  west  as  the  Altai  Mountains. 

When  these  are  not  identical,  or  so  closely  related  to  the  Ameri- 
can species  that  the  one  may  be  said  strictly  to  represent  the  other, 
also  when  genera  or  parts  of  genera  are  adduced  merely  as  repre- 
senting the  same  type  in  these  respective  regions,  the  names  are  in- 
cluded in  parentheses. 

Species  which  extend  through  Europe  into  northeastern  Asia, 
and  therefore  nearly  round  the  temperate  zone,  are  also  left  out  of 
view,  the  object  being  to  consider  the  peculiar  relations  of  the  floras 
of  eastern  North  America  and  eastern  temperate  Asia.  The  table 
has  been  drawn  up  off-hand,  from  the  means  within  reach.  Prob- 
ably the  example  might  be  considerably  increased. 

Extra-European  (Temperate)  Genera  and  Species  of  the  Atlantic 
United  States  (i.  e.,  east  of  the  Mississippi)  represented  by  iden- 
tical or  strictly  representative  Species,  or  else  by  less  inti- 
mately  RELATED    SPECIES    (THE    LATTER   INCLUDED   IN    PaKENTHKSES). 


1.  In  the  Pacific   United 

2.  In  Northeastern  Asia,  Japan 

States. 

to  Altai  and  the  Himalayas. 

Anemone  Pennsylvanica. 

Anemone  dichotoma  =  Peunsyl- 
vanica. 

"         parviflora. 

Anemoue  parviflora  ? 

Ranunculus  alisma-folius. 

Ranunculus  alismaefolius. 

Ranunculus  alismaefolins. 

"             Cymbalaria. 

"          Cymbalaria. 

**            Cymbalaria. 

' '            Graelini. 

"         Gmelini. 

"            Gmelini. 

"            Pennsylvanicus. 

"          Pennsylvanicus. 

"            Pennsylvanicus. 

Trautvetteria  palmata. 

Trautvetteria  palmata. 

Trautvetteria  palmata. 

Hydrastis  Canadensis. 

Hydrastis  Jesoenis. 

Trollius  Americanus. 

Trollius  Americanus  var. 

Trollius  patulus  var.  =  Ameri- 
canus, Ledeb. 

Aconitum  uncinatum. 

Aconitum  uncinatum  ex  Hook,  f . 

Actaea  spicata,  var.  rubra. 

Actaea  spicata,  var.  arguta. 

Actaea  spicata,  var.  rubra. 

l>  alba. 

"    alba  ? 

Ciniicifuga  Americana. 

Cimicifuga  foetida,  barely  occuri 
in  N.  Europe  also. 

Cimicifuga  racemosa  and  cor- 

(Cimicifuga  elata.) 

(Cimicifuga  Dahurica  and  §  Pity- 

difolia. 

rosperma,  3  spp.) 

Illicium  Floridanum  and  par- 

Illicium    anisatum,    religiosuro, 

vi.lorum. 

etc. 

Schizandra  coccinea. 

(Soliizandra  nigra.  •  1 

Magnolia,  7  spp. 

(Magnolia,  8-12  Bpp.) 

Menispermum  Canadense. 

Bfenispermtmi  Dahuricum. 

Caulophyllum  thalictroides.1 

Caulophyllum  thalictroides. 

Diphyll  »ia  cymosa. 

Diphylleia  Grayi. 

Jeffersonia  diphylla. 

Jeffersonia  =  Plagiorhegma  du- 

liiimi. 

Podophyllum  peltatum. 

(Podophyllum  Emodi.) 

Brasenia  peltata. 

Brasenia  peltata. 

Brasenia  peltata. 

Nelumbium  luteum. 

Nelumbium  speciosum. 

Stylophorum  diphyllum. 

(Stylophorum  JaponidUD  ami 
lactucoi 

1  See  Appendix,  II. 


166 


ESS  A  YS. 


Dicentra  eximia. 
Corydalis  aurea. 
Viola  Selkirkii. 

"     Canadensis. 
Claytonia,  Virginica  and  Ca- 

roliniana. 
Elodes  Virginica. 

"        petiolata. 
Tilia    Americana    (American 

type). 
Tilia  heterophylla. 
Stuartia,  2  spp. 
Xanthoxylum  spp. 
Rhus  venenata. 

u     Toxicodendron, 
Vitis  Labrusca. 

"    indivisa. 
Ampelopsis  quinquefolia. 
Berchemia  volubilis. 
Sageretia  Michauxii. 
Celastrus  scandens. 
.aSsculus  glabra. 

"        flava  and  Pavia. 

"        parviflora. 
Acer  spicatum. 

"    Pennsylvanicum. 
Negundo  aceroides. 

Wistaria  frutescens. 
Desmodium,  many  spp. 
Lespedeza  spp. 
Rhynchosia  spp. 
Amphicarpaea  monoica, 
Thermopsis,  3  spp. 
Cladrastis  tinctoria. 
Cassia  spp. 
Gleditschia    triacanthos    and 

monosperma. 
Neptunia  lutea. 
Spiraea  (Neillia)  opuIifoKa. 

"        corymbosa- 
Neviusa  Alabamensis. 
Geum  macrophyllum. 
Potentilla  Pennsylvanica. 
Rubus  triflorus. 

"       strigosus. 
Pyrus  Americana  and  sambu- 

cifolia. 
Amelanchier  Canadensis  and 

vars. 
Calycanthus,  3  spp. 
Ribes  Cynosbati. 

"      lacustre. 

"      prostratum. 
Philadelphus,  2  spp. 
Itea  Virginica. 
Hydrangea,  3  spp. 
Astilbe  decandra. 
Boykinia  aconitifolia. 

Mitella  nuda. 
"      diphylla. 

Tiarella  cordifolia. 
Penthorum  sedoides. 

Hamamelis  Virginica. 
Fothevgilla  alnifolia. 
Heracleum  lanatum. 
Archangelica  Gmelini. 
Sium  lineare. 
Cryptotaenia  Canadensis. 
Archemora,  2  spp. 


Dicentra  eximia  or  formosa 
Corydalis  aurea  var. 


Viola  Canadensis  var. 
Claytonia  lanceolata. 


(Rhus  diversiloba.) 


(iEsculus  Calffornica.) 


Negundo  aceroides  Califor- 
nicnm. 


(Thermopsis  fabacea  &  Bp.) 


Spiraea  opulifolia. 
"     betuleefolia. 

Geum  macrophyllum. 
Potentilla  Pennsylvanica. 

Rubus  strigosus. 
Pyrus  sambucifolia. 

Amelanchier   Canadensis 

var. 
Calycanthus  occidentalis. 
(Ribes  spp.) 

"     setosum. 

"     laxiflorum. 
Philadelphus,  2  spp. 


Boykinia   occidentalis    and 

elata. 
Mitella  nuda. 
Mitella  §  Mitellastra,  etc., 

spp. 
Tiarella  unifoliata. 


Heracleum  lanatum. 
Archangelica  Gmelini. 


(Dicentra  spp.) 
Corydalis  aurea  var.,  etc. 
Viola  Selkirkii. 

"     Canadensis  var. 
(Claytonia,  spp.  Siberia.) 

Elodes  Virginica. 
"      petiolata. 
Tilia  Bp.,  American  type,  one  of 
which  reaches  Hungary. 

(Stuartia,  3  spp.) 
(Xanthoxylum  spp.) 
Rhus  vernicifera,  etc. 

"     Toxicodendron. 
Vitis  Labrusca. 

"     humulifolia. 
(Ampelopsis  tricuspidata.) 
(Berchemia  racemosa,  etc.) 
(Sageretia  theasans.) 
(Celastrus,  5  spp.) 
iEsculus  Chinensis  and    Hippo- 

castanum. 
(iEsculus  dissimilis.) 
(       "        Punduana  Wall.) 
Acer  spicatum  var. 

"    tegmentosum. 
(Negundo  cissifolium  and   spp.) 

Wistaria  Sinensis  and  spp. 
(Desmodium,  several  spp.) 
(Lespedeza,  spp.) 
(Rhynchosia,  sp.) 
(Amphicarpaea,  5  spp.) 
Thermopsis  fabacea. 
(Maackia  Amurensis.) 
(Cassia  spp.) 
Gleditschia  Chinensis,  etc. 

(Neptunia  spp.) 
(Neillia  spp.,  Himalayas.) 
Spiraea  betulaefolia. 
(Stephanandra,  Kerria.) 
Geum  Japonicum. 
Potentilla  Pennsylvanica. 
Rubus  triflorus,  var.  Japonicus. 

"       strigosus. 
Pyrus  Americana  and  sambuci- 
folia. 
Amelanchier  Canadensis  var. 

(Chimonanthus  fragrans.) 
Ribes  Cynosbati. 

"      lacustre. 

"  laxiflorum. 
Philadelphus  spp. 
(Itea  spp.) 

Hydrangea,  many  spp. 
Astilbe  Thunbergii  and  spp. 
(Boykinia?  =  Saxifr.  tellimioides 

Maxim.) 
Mitella  nuda,  Siberia. 
(Mitella  §  Mitellastra,  sp.) 

Tiarella  polyphylla. 
Penthorum     sedoides  ?   =  Chi- 

nense  and  humile. 
Hamamelis  Japonica,  etc. 
(Corylopsis  spp.,  etc.) 
Heracleum  lanatum. 
Archangelica  Gmelini. 
Sium  cicutaefolium. 
Cryptotaenia  Canadensis. 
(Peucedanum  ?  Sieboldii.) 


APPENDIX. 


167 


Osmorrhiza     longistylia    and 

brevistylis. 
Aralia  spinosa. 
"     racemosa. 
"    nudicaulis. 
"    (Ginseng)  quinquefolia. 
Cornus  Canadensis. 
"      florida. 
"      stolonifera. 
Diervilla,  2  spp. 
Triosteum,  2  epp. 

Viburnum  lantanoidea. 

"     dentatum  &  pubescens. 
Mitchella  repens. 
Adenocaulon  bicolor. 
Boltonia,  spp. 
Aster  §  Biotia,  corymbosus 

and  spp. 
Aster  §  Conyzopsis,  angustus. 

Artemisia  Canadensis. 

"        biennis. 

"        frigida. 
Senecio  pseudo-arnica. 
Nabalus  spp. 
Cacalia  spp. 

Mulgedium  pulchellum. 
Vaccinium  §  Oxycoccus  mac- 
rocarpum. 

"  *'  erythrocarpum. 

14  §  Batodendron,  2  spp. 
"  §  Cyanococcus,  15  spp. 

"     ovalifolium. 
Chiogenes  hispidula. 
Epignea  repens. 
Gaultheria  procumbens. 
Leucothoe  axillaris  and  Cates- 

bsei. 
Leucothoe  racemosa  and  re- 

curva. 
Andromeda  §  Portuna  flori- 

bunda. 
Andromeda  §  Pieris  spp. 
Clethra,  2  spp. 
Menziesia     ferruginea,     var. 

globularis. 
Rhododendron  Catawbiense. 

"        maximum. 

"         punctatum. 
Rhodora  Canadensis. 
Azalea,  4  spp. 
Elliottia  racemosa. 


Osmorrhiza  longistylia,  etc. 
Aralia  humilis. 


Cornus  Canadensis. 
"      Nuttallii. 


Viburnum  ellipticum. 
Adenocaulon  bicolor. 


Aster  angustus. 
Artemisia  Canadensis. 


biennis, 
frigida. 


Mulgedium  pulchellum. 


Vaccinium  ovalifolium. 


Menziesia  globularis. 
Rhododendron       Calif  or  ni- 


(Azalea  occidentalism 


Osmorrhiza  longistylis,  etc. 

Aralia  spinosa  var. 
"      edulis,  etc. 
(    "       cordata.) 

"      repens,  Ginseng,  etc. 
Cornus  Canadensis. 
Benthamia  spp. 

"  alba. 

(Diervilla  §  Weigela,  spp.) 
Triosteum  ainuatuin  and  Hima- 

laicuin. 
Viburnum  lautanoides  (and   re- 
lated species.) 
Viburnum  dilatatum,  etc. 
Mitchella  undulata. 
Adenocaulon   adhii-rescens. 
(Boltonia  spp.) 
Aster  §  Biotia,  corynibosus  and 

spp. 
Aster    angustus  =   Brachyactia 

ciliata,  Ledeb. 
Artemisia  Cauadensis  ?  =r  coinu- 

tata. 
Artemisia  biennis. 

"  frigida. 

Senecio  pseudo-arnica. 
(Nabalus  ochroleucus  acerif olius) 
(Cacalia  spp.) 
Mulgedium  Sibiricum. 
Vaccinium  macrocarpum,  forma 
ambigua.1 

"    Japonicum   (ab  erythro- 
carpo  %  ix  differt). 
(       "     §  Batodendron,  spp.) 
(      "    §  Cyanococcus,   one    sp. 
near  Peunsylvanicum. 

"     ovalifolium. 
Chiogenes  hispidula. 
Epigsea  Asiatica. 
Gaultheria  pyroloidea. 
Leucothoe  Keiskei. 

(     "    GrayanaandTschonoskii.) 

(Andromeda  §  Portuna  sp.) 

(         "  §  Pieris  spp.) 

(Clethra  sp.)* 

Menziesia  pentandra  and  others. 

(Rhododendron  brachycarpum.) 

(  m  Mrttcrnichii.) 

(  "  K.  iskei.) 

j  "  epp.) 

(Azalea  spp.) 

Tripetaleia  paniculata  and  brac- 
teata. 


l  "  Ob  flores  revera  terminates,  bracteolas  lineari-lanceolatas  scariosaset  folia  acuta.''  Dr. 
Maximowicz  (in  «  Mel.  Biolog.  Diagn."  decas  12)  refers  this  to  V.  Oxycoccu*,  instead  of  to  I 
macrocarpum,  which  is  »  semper  bene  distinctum  floribua  axfflaribue,  bracteohs  ovat.s  foha,  eto 
et  foUis  obtusis."  But  in  one  of  my  specimens  the  axis  of  the  umbel  »  continued  mto  a  tat* 
shoot,  as  in  V.  macrocarpum;  and  the  bracteobe  vary  from  linear  to  ovate,  and  from  thin 
and  scarious  to  chartaceous  or  coriaceous  in  both  species  ;  they  are  never  (bo  far  as  k„„  > 
"foliaceous  "  in  V.  macrocarpum,  but  the  bractea,  somet.mes  are.  The  lea>es  are  some 
times  acutish  in  the  latter,  and  also  very  obtuse  in  V.  O^oocc^  :  in  the  ^pane*  «£-. 
under  consideration  they  are  often  half  an  inch  in  length.     I  must  add  that  In  "      ''  '  f 

the  filaments  they  accord  with  the  character  which  I  assigned  to  I  .  Orycoccua  U>  the  Manual. 
In  fact,  a  form  combining  the  characters  of  the  two  species  survives  in  Japan. 


168 


ESSA  YS. 


Pyrola  elliptica. 

Pyrola  elliptica. 

Monotropa  uniflora. 

Monotropa  uniflora. 

Shortia  galacifolia. 

Shortia  galacifolia  rr  Schizocodon 
uuittorus. 

Ilex  §  Prinos  spp. 

(Ilex  §  Prinos  spp.) 

Diospyros  Virgiiiiana. 

(Diospyros  spp.) 
(Symplocos  spp.) 

Symplocos  sp. 

Tecoma  radicans. 

Tecoma  grandiflora. 

Catalpa  bignouioides. 

Catalpa  Ka±mpferi. 

Veronica  Virginica. 

Veronica  Virginica. 

Callicarpa  Americana. 

(Callicarpa  ;  3  spp.) 

Phryma  Leptostachya. 

Phryma  Leptostachya. 

Lycopus  Virginicus. 

Lycopus  Virginicus. 

Lycopus  parviflorus. 

Teucrium  Canadense. 

Teucrium  Japonicum. 

Hedeorna,  4  spp. 

(Hedeorna  sp.) 

Lophanthus  spp. 

Lophanthus  spp. 

(Lophanthus  sp.) 

Scutellaria     (nuculis     alatis) 

Scutellaria  (nuculis  alatis)  Guili- 

nervosa. 

elnii.1 

Halenia  deflexa. 

Halenia  Sibirica,  and  spp. 

Phlox  subulata. 

(Phlox  Douglasii  and  spp.) 

Phlox  Sibirica. 

Gelsemium  sempervirens. 

(Gelsemium  elegans.) 

Mitreola,  2  spp. 

Mitreola  oldenlandioides. 

Apocynirm  androssemifolium. 

Apocynum    androsaemifoli- 

(Apocynum  venetum.) 

Amsonia  Tabernaernontana. 

(Amsonia  elliptica.) 

Asarum  Virginicum  and  ari- 

Asarum  caudatum. 

Asarum  variegatum  and  Blumei. 

folium. 

Asarum  Canadense. 

"        caulescens  and  Sieboldii. 

Phytolacca  decandra. 

Phytolacca  Kneuipferi,  etc. 

Corispermum  liyssopifolium. 

Corispermum  hyssopifolium. 

Polygonum  arifolium. 

Polygonum  perfoliatum. 

"            sagittatum. 

"          sagittatum  and   Sie- 
boldii. 

Sassafras  officinale. 

(Lindera  triloba,  etc) 

Lindera  Benzoin,  etc. 

"         hypoglauca,  etc. 

Tetranthera  geniculata. 

(Tetranthera  California.) 

(Tetranthera  spp.) 

Pyrularia  oleifera. 

(Pyrularia  =  Sphaerocarpa  spp.) 

Saururus  cernuus. 

Saururus  Loureiri. 

Stillingia  6pp. 

(Stillingia  spp.) 

Pachysandra  procumbens. 

Pachysandra  terminalis. 

Planera  aquatica. 

Planera  Japonica  (and  l.ichardi). 

Maclura  aurantiaca. 

Maclura  gerontogsea. 

Pilea  pumila. 

Pilea  pumila. 

Laportea  Canadensis. 

Laportea  evitata,  etc. 

Bcehmeria  cylindrica. 

(Bcehmeria  spp.) 

Parietaria  debilis. 

Parietaria  debilis. 

Juglans  nigra. 

(Juglans  rupestris.) 

(Juglans  regia.) 

"     cinerea. 

Juglans  Mandchurica,  stenocar- 

Corylus  rostrata. 

Corylus  rostrata  var. 

pa. 
Corylus  rostrata,  var.  Mandchu- 

Betula  glandulosa. 

Betula  glandulosa. 

"       nigra. 

(     "      ulmifolia,  etc.) 

Alnus  maritima. 

Alnus  maritima. 

Myrica  cerifera. 

Myrica  Californica. 

(Myrica  Nagi.) 

Pinus  resinosa. 

(Pinus  densi flora,  etc.) 

"     Strobus. 

Pinus  nionticola. 

"      excelsa. 

1  Scutellaria  GwUielmi,  n.  sp.  Perilomioides :  slender,  branched  from  the  base,  stolonifer- 
ous  ?  leaves  membranaceous,  minutely  pubescent,  crenately  dentate,  the  lower  round-cordate 
and  slender-petioled,  the  others  ovate  or  oblong  with  rounded  or  truncate  base  and  short-peti- 
oled,  the  floral  similar  but  gradually  smaller  ;  flowers  solitary  in  the  axils  ;  peduncles  about 
the  length  of  the  calyx ;  corolla  ("  light  purple,"  only  three  lines  long)  hardly  more  than  twice 
the  length  of  the  calyx,  its  lips  of  nearly  equal  length  ;  nutlets  surrounded  by  an  abrupt  and 
reflexed  denticulate  wing,  upper  face  of  the  disk  muricate,  the  lower  as  if  squamellate.  S. 
hederacea?  Gray,  in  Perry's  "  Japan  Exped."  iii.  p.  316,  and  "  Bot.  Contrib.  Proc.  Amer.  Acad." 
viii.  p.  370,  not  of  Kunth  and  Bouche\  It  appears  from  a  note  by  Vatke,  in  "Bot.  Zeit.,"  1872,  p. 
717,  that  S.  hederacea  is  identical  with  the  Tasmanian  S.humUis,  and  its  nutlets  were  originally 
described  as  echinulate-tuberculate,  and  by  implication  wingless.  So  our  plant  may  be  named 
in  honor  of  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams,  who  first  collected  a  little  of  it  at  Simoda,  Japan.  Better  and 
fruiting  specimens  were  gathered  on  the  Loo-Choo  Islands,  by  Charles  Wright. 


APPENDIX. 


169 


Abies  Canadensis. 
Thuja  occidentals. 
Taxodium  distichum. 
Cupressus      (Chamaecyparia) 

thuyoides. 
Taxus  Canadensis. 
Torreya  taxif  olia. 
Arisa?ma,  3  spp. 
Syinplocarpus  foetidus. 

Listera  australis. 
Arethusa  bulbosa. 
Pogonia  ophioglossoides. 
Microstylis  opliioglossoides. 
Liparis  liliifolia. 
Cypripedium  acaule. 
Habenaria  virescens. 
Aletris  farinosa  and  aurea. 
Iris  cristata. 
Dioscorea  villosa. 
Sniilax  hispida. 

"      herbacea  and  pedun- 

cularis. 
Smilax  tamnifolia. 
Croomia  paucirlora. 
Trillium  grandifioruru. 

"        erectum. 
Tofieldia    glutinosa    and    pu- 

bens. 
Helonias  bullata. 

Chamaelirium  luteum. 
Zygadenus,  3  spp. 
Streptopus  roseus. 
Prosartes  lanuginosa. 
Clintonia  borealis. 
Polygonatum  giganteum. 
Smilacina  trifolia. 

"        racemosa. 

"        stellata. 
Erythronium        Americanuni 

and  albiduin. 
Narthecium  Americanum. 
Scirpus  Eriophorum. 
Carex  rostrata. 
Carex  stipata 
Zizania  aquatica. 
Arundinaria  macrosperma. 
Avena  striata  and  Smithii. 
Adiantum  pedatum. 
Pellsea  gracilis. 
Aspidium  fragrans. 
Asplenium  thelypteroides. 
Camptosorus  rhizophyllus. 
Onoclea  sensibilis. 
Osmunda  cinnamonea. 

"        Claytoniana. 
Lygodium  palmatum. 
Botrychiuni  Virginicum. 
Lycopodium  lucidulum. 

"  dendroideum. 


Abies  Mertensiana. 
Thuja  gigantea,  etc. 

C.  Nutkaensis. 

Taxus  brevifolia. 
Torreya  Calif ornica. 

(Lysichiton         Camtschat- 
•) 


Trillium  obovatum. 


Zygadenus  glaucus,  etc. 
Streptopus  roseus. 
Prosartes  Hookeri,  etc. 
Clintonia  uniflora. 


Smilacina  racemosa  var. 

"        stellata. 
Erythronium  grandiflorum. 


Carex  stipata. 


Adiantum  pedatum. 


Abies  Tsuga  and  diversifolia. 
Thuja  Japonica. 
(Glyptostrobus  heterophyllus.) 
Cupressus  pisifera,  obtusa,  etc. 

Taxus  cuspid  ata. 
Torreya  nucifera  and  grandis. 
Arisaema,  9  spp. 

Symplocarpus  foetidus  ?  and  Ly- 
sichiton Taint  -r) iat cense. 
(Listera  Japonica,  etc.) 
(Arethusa  Japonica.) 
Pogonia  ophioglossoides. 
(Microstylis  Japonica.) 
Liparis  liliifolia  '.' 
(Cypripedium  Japonicum.) 
Habenaria  fucescens. 
Aletris  Japonica. 
Iris  tectorum  =  cristate,  Miq. 
(Dioscorea  spp.) 
Sniilax  Sieboldii. 

"      herbacea  =  Nipponica. 

(  "  higoensis.) 
Croomia  paucirlora. 
Trillium  obovatum. 

"        erectum  var. 
(Tofieldia  Japonica  and  nutans.) 

Heloniopsis    paucirlora,    brevis- 

capa,  Japonica. 
Chama-liriuni  luteum. 
(Zygadenus  Japonicus.) 
Streptopus  roseus. 
Prosartes  viridescena,  etc. 
Clintonia  Udensis. 
Polygonatum  giganteum. 
Smilacina  trifolia. 

"         Japonica. 

"        Davarica. 
Erythronium  grandirlorum. 

Narthecium  Asiaticum. 
Scirpus  Eriopliorum. 
Carex  rostrata. 
Carex  Btipata. 

Zizania=Hydio]yrmn  latifolium. 
(Arundinaria  Japonica.) 
Avena  collosa. 
Adiantum  pedatum. 
Pellsea  Stelleri  =  gracilis. 
Aspidium  fragrans. 
Asplenium  thch  pteroides. 
Camptosorus  Sihiricua. 
Onoclea  sensibilis. 
Osmunda  cinnamonea. 

"         Claytoniana. 
(Lygodium  Japonicum.) 
Botrychium  Virginicum. 
Lye  podium  lucidulum. 

"  dendroideum. 


It  appears  that  two  thirds  of  the  middle  column  is  blank  :  namely, 
that  only  a  third  of  the  species  or  forms  which  arc  more  or  less  pe- 
culiar to  temperate  Atlantic  North  America  (/.  e.,  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  south  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence)  and 
to  temperate  eastern  Asia,  are  represented  in  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia.    Moreover,  eighty  of  the  genera  here  treated  of  are  peculiar 


170 


ESS  A  YS. 


to  North  America  and  temperate  Asia ;  and  sixty-three  (i.  e., 
more  than  three  quarters)  of  these  are  not  met  with  in  western 
North  America. 

This  table  may  be  compared,  or  rather  contrasted,  with  the  fol- 
lowing one. 

Extra-European  Plants  of  Temperate  Eastern  Asia  which  are  rep- 
resented  IDENTICALLY   OR  BY  SOME   NEAR  RELATIVE  IN  OREGON  (SOUTH 

of  Lat.  48°)  or  California  (Arctic-alpine  Plants  excluded),  but 
not  in  the  Atlantic  United  States  :  — 


Thalictrum  sparsiflorum. 
Ranunculus  affinis. 
Coptis  occidentalis. 

"       brachypetala  and  Teeta. 
Aconitum  delphinifolium. 
Poeonia  spp. 
Berberis  §  Mahonia  spp. 
Epimedium  §  Aceranthus  sp. 
Achlys  Japonica. 
Corydalis  paeoniaefolia. 
Moehringia  umbrosa. 
Linuin  perenne. 
Thermopsis  fabacea. 
Astragalus  adsurgens. 
Chamaerhodos  erecta. 
Spiraea  callosa. 
Rubus  spectabilis. 
Pyrus  rivularis  ? 
Crataegus  sanguinea. 
Rosa  Karntschatica. 
Photinia  arbutifolia. 
Saxifraga  Sibirica. 
Mitella  §  Mitellaria  spp. 
Glebnia  littoralis. 
Oplopanax  horrida. 
Echenais  carlinoides. 
Lonicera  Maximovviczii. 
Gaultheria  adenothrix. 
Rhododendron  ovatum  and    semibarba- 

tum. 
Pyrola  subaphylla. 
Villarsia  Crista-Galli. 
Lycopus  lucidus. 
Boschniakia  glabra. 
Echinospermum  patulum. 

4 '  Redowskii. 

Hottuynia  cordata. 
Quercus  spp. 
Castanopsis  spp. 
Lysichiton  Camtschatcense. 
Erythronium  grandiflorum. 
Carex  macrocephala. 
Triticum  aegilopoides. 
Elymus  Sibiricus. 
Abies  Menziesii. 
Woodwardia  radicans. 


Thalictrum  sparsiflorum. 
Ranunculus  affinis. 
Coptis  occidentalis. 
"       asplenifolia. 
Aconitum  delphinifolium. 
(Pceonia  Rossii.) 
(Berberis  §  Mahonia  spp. 
Vancouveria  hexandra. 
Achlys  triphylla. 
Corydalis  paeoniaefolia. 
Moehringia  macrophylla. 
Linum  perenne. 
Thermopsis  fabacea. 
Astragalus  adsurgens. 
Chamaerhodos  erecta. 
Spiraea  Nobleana. 
Rubus  spectabilis. 
Pyrus  rivularis. 
Crataegus  Douglasii. 
Rosa  Karntschatica. 
(Photinia  serrulata.) 
Saxifraga  Sibirica. 
(Mitella  §  Mitellaria  spp.) 
Glehnia  littoralis. 
Oplopanax  horrida. 
Echenais  carlinoides. 
Lonicera  Breweri. 
Gaultheria  Myrsinites. 
Rhododendron  albiflorum. 

Pyrola  aphylla. 
Villarsia  Crista-Galli. 
Lycopus  lucidus. 
Boschniakia  glabra. 
Echinospermum  patulum. 

"  Redowskii. 

Anemiopsis  Californica. 
(Quercus  densiflora.) 
(Castanopsis  chrysophylla.) 
Lysichiton  Camtchatcense. 
Erythronium  grandiflorum. 
Carex  macrocephala. 
Triticum  apgilopoides. 
Elymus  Sibiricus. 
Abies  Menziesii. 
Woodwardia  radicans. 


The  entries  are  only  forty-five  ;  and  the  representation,  when  at 
all  close,  is  by  identical  or  nearly  identical  species.  Only  seven  of 
the  genera  here  noted  are  peculiar  to  northeastern  Asia  and  north- 
western America :  namely,  Glehnia,  Oplopanax,  and  Lysichiton, 
each  of  a  single  species  common  to  both  coasts  ;  Achlys,  of  which 
there  is  a  Japanese  species  said  to  differ  from  the  American ;  Bosch- 


APPENDIX.  171 

niakia,  of  a  common  high  northern  species,  and  a  peculiar  one  in 
California  ;  Echinais,  of  one  or  two  Asiatic  species,  one  of  them 
lately  found  in  California  and  Colorado,  but  possibly  of  recent  in- 
troduction ;  and  Castanopsis,  a  rather  large  and  characteristic  east 
Asian  genus,  represented  by  a  single  but  very  distinct  species  in 
Oregon  and  California. 

Small,  under  the  circumstances,  as  is  the  number  of  cognate  plants 
or  forms  in  these  two  floras,  it  is  large  in  comparison  with  those 
which  are  peculiar  to  the  United  States  and  Europe,  excluding,  as 
before,  all  Arctic-alpine  species.  The  following  seem  to  be  the 
principal :  — 

Anemone  nemorosa,  of  which  there  is  a  peculiar  Pacific  form,  per- 
haps reaching  the  eastern  borders  of  Asia. 

Myosorus  minimus,  which  may  be  a  recently  introduced  plant. 

Cakile,  a  maritime  genus. 

Saxifraga  aizoides. 

Bellis  integrifolia,  which  may  be  compared  with  the  European 
B.  annua. 

Lobelia  Dortmanna. 

Primula  Mistassinica. 

Centunculus  lanceolatus,  a  mere  form  of  C.  minimus. 

Hottonia  infiata,  which  represents  H.  palustris. 

Utricularia  minor. 

Salicomia  Virginica,  the  S.  mucronata  of  Bigelow  and  probably 
of  Lagasca  also. 

Corema  Conradi,  representing  the  Portuguese  C.  alba. 

Vallisneria  spiralis,  which  appears  to  be  absent  from  northern 
Asia. 

Spiranthes  Bomanzoviana,  with  its  single  station  on  the  Irish 
coast.  It  extends  across  the  American  continent  well  northward, 
but  seemingly  not  into  the  adjacent  parts  of  Asia. 

Eriocaulon  septangulare,  restricted  in  the  Old  World  to  a  few 
stations  on  west  British  coasts. 

Carex  extensa,  C.flacca  (or  Barrattii),  and  one  or  two  others. 

Cinna  arundinacea,  var.  pendula. 

Leersia  oryzoides. 

Spartina  stricta  and  S.  juncea. 

Equisetum  Telmateia. 

Lycopodium  inundatum. 

Calluna  vidgaris,  which  holds  as  small  and  precarious  a  tenure 
on  this  continent  as  Spiranthes  Bomanzoviana  does  in  Europe. 


172  ESSAYS. 

Barely  two  dozen ;  and  three  or  four  of  these  are  more  or  less 
maritime.  Only  two  or  three  of  them  extend  west  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley. 

Narthecium  is  not  in  the  list,  a  form  or  near  ally  of  the  European 
and  Atlantic-American  species  having  been  detected  in  Japan  ;  the 
genus  is  unknown  on  the  Pacific  side  of  our  continent. 

II. 

Since  the  foregoing  tables  were  prepared,  a  letter  from  Mr.  Dall 
(who  has  returned  from  an  arduous  and  successful  exploration  of  the 
Alaskan  region,  made  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States  Coast 
Survey)  informs  me  that  his  party  met  with  Caulophyllum  upon  one 
of  the  Shumagin  Islands.  These  islands  lie  off  the  southern  shore 
of  the  peninsula  of  Alaska,  about  in  latitude  55°,  longitude  160°. 
No  specimen  occurs  in  the  beautiful  collection  of  dried  plants  made 
in  this  expedition,  mainly  by  Mr.  Harrington ;  nor  indeed  any  other 
plants  which  affect  so  southern  a  range  as  our  Caulophyllum.  Yet 
the  plant  may  well  have  been  rightly  identified;  although  it  should 
be  seen  by  botanists  before  any  conclusions  are  drawn  from  it.  But 
the  occurrence  of  an  intermediate  station  like  this  would  probably 
lead  Professor  Grisebach  to  rank  the  north  Asiatic  Caulophyllum 
no  longer  as  a  representative  species,  but  as  identical  with  our  At- 
lantic plant,  as  Miquel  and  Maximowicz,  as  well  as  myself,  have 
already  done  upon  evidence  derived  from  the  specimens. 

Then,  —  upon  Professor  Grisebach's  idea  that,  while  identical 
species  are  to  be  referred  to  a  single  origin  and  the  disseverance 
accounted  for  through  means  and  causes  now  in  operation,  repre- 
sentative species  have  somehow  arisen  independently  under  similar 
climates,  —  Caulophyllum  must  be  explained  as  a  case  of  migration, 
but  Diphylleia  (in  the  same  predicament,  only  with  a  perceptible 
difference  between  the  two  plants)  as  a  case  of  double  origination. 
So  of  the  Shortia  galacifolia  and  the  Schizocodon  uniflorus,  of 
which  the  corolla  and  stamens  in  both  are  still  wanting.  If  these, 
when  found,  should  prove  to  be  exactly  alike  in  the  two,  the  very 
difficult  problem  of  accounting  for  the  world-wide  separation  under 
present  circumstances  is  to  be  encountered  ;  if  a  difference  appears, 
the  problem  is  to  consider  how,  and  upon  what,  similar  climates  can 
have  acted  to  have  originated  almost  identical  species  upon  opposite 
sides  of  the  world.  Professor  Grisebach's  views  imply  that  "  each 
species  has  arisen  under  the  influence  of  physical  and  other  external 
conditions,"  and  that  gradual  alterations  in  a  climate  somehow  pro- 


APPENDIX.  173 

duce  adaptive  "  changes  in  organization  "  ;  wherefore,  as  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Linnsean  Society  has  aptly  remarked,1  "  We  have  a  right 
to  ask  of  him,  What  is  the  previous  organization  upon  which  he 
imagines  climate  to  have  worked  to  produce  allied  species  in  one 
region  and  representative  species  in  distant  regions  ?  "  The  differ- 
ence here  between  Grisebach's  conception  and  our  own  is,  that  we 
consider  climate  and  other  external  conditions  to  have  acted  upon 
common  ancestors  in  each  case  ;  but  he  apparently  declines  to  con- 
jecture what  they  acted  upon. 

In  conclusion  I  may  advert  to  one  instance,  in  which  it  would  ap- 
pear, either  that  widely  different  climates  have  originated  the  same 
or  closely  similar  species,  or  else  that  one  and  the  same  species  (one 
of  those  common  to  the  United  States  and  Japan)  has  been  dis- 
persed over  the  globe  in  a  manner  and  to  an  extent  that  place  it  be- 
yond the  reach  of  explanations  limited  to  the  results  of  forces  still 
in  activity  and  means  of  dispersion  still  available.  Brasenia  peltata 
inhabits  :  1.  The  Atlantic  United  States,  from  Canada  to  Texas  ;  2. 
Oregon,  or  rather  Washington  Territory,  a  single  known  station  at 
Gray's  Harbor,  on  the  Pacific,  latitude  47°  ;  and  Clear  Lake,  in 
California,  latitude  39°  ;  3.  Japan  ;  4.  Khasya  and  Bhotan,  altitude 
4-6000  feet ;  5.  Australia,  Moreton  Bay,  etc. ;  6.  West  Africa,  in 
a  lake  in  Angola  ! 

1  Address  of  George  Bentham,  Esq  ,  President  of  the  Linnaean  Society, 
etc.,  read  May  24,  1872. 


DO  VARIETIES  WEAR  OUT  OR  TEND  TO  WEAR  OUT  ? 1 

This  question  has  been  argued  from  time  to  time  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  and  is  far  from  being  settled  yet.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  to  be  settled  either  way  so  easily  as  is  some- 
times thought.  The  result  of  a  prolonged  and  rather  lively 
discussion  of  the  topic  about  forty  years  ago  in  England,  in 
which  Lindley  bore  a  leading  part  on  the  negative  side,  was, 
if  we  rightly  remember,  that  the  nays  had  the  best  of  the 
argument.  The  deniers  could  fairly  well  explain  away  the 
facts  adduced  by  the  other  side,  and  evade  the  force  of  the 
reasons  then  assigned  to  prove  that  varieties  were  bound  to 
die  out  in  the  course  of  time.  But  if  the  case  were  fully  re- 
argued now,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  nays  would 
wrin  it.  The  most  they  could  expect  would  be  the  Scotch 
verdict  "  not  proven."  And  this  not  because  much,  if  any, 
additional  evidence  of  the  actual  wearing  out  of  any  variety 
has  turned  up  since,  but  because  a  presumption  has  been 
raised  under  which  the  evidence  would  take  a  bias  the  other 
way.  There  is  now  in  the  minds  of  scientific  men  some  reason 
to  expect  that  certain  varieties  would  die  out  in  the  long  run, 
and  this  might  have  an  important  influence  upon  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  facts  that  would  be  brought  forward.  Curi- 
ously enough,  however,  the  recent  discussions  to  which  our 
attention  has  been  called  seem,  on  both  sides,  to  have  over- 
looked this  matter. 

But,  first  of  all,  the  question  needs  to  be  more  specifically 
stated  if  any  good  is  to  come  from  a  discussion  of  it.  There 
are  varieties  and  varieties.  They  may,  some  of  them,  disap- 
pear or  deteriorate,  but  yet  not  wear  out  —  not  come  to  an 
end  from  any  inherent  cause.  One  might  even  say,  the 
younger  they  are  the  less  chance  of  survival  unless  well  cared 
1  New  York  Tribune,  semi-weekly  edition,  December  8,  1874. 


DO  VARIETIES  WEAR   OUT?  175 

for.  They  may  be  smothered  out  by  the  adverse  force  of 
superior  numbers  ;  they  are  even  more  likely  to  be  bred  out 
of  existence  by  unprevented  cross-fertilization,  or  to  disappear 
from  mere  change  of  fashion.  The  question,  however,  is  not 
so  much  about  reversion  to  an  ancestral  state,  or  the  fulling 
off  of  a  high-bred  stock  into  an  inferior  condition.  Of  such 
cases  it  is  enough  to  say  that,  when  a  variety  or  strain  of 
animal  or  vegetable  is  led  up  to  unusual  fecundity  or  size  or 
product  of  any  organ,  for  our  good,  and  not  for  the  good  of 
the  plant  or  animal  itself,  it  can  be  kept  so  only  by  high  feed- 
ing and  exceptional  care  ;  and  that  with  high  feeding  and 
artificial  appliances  come  vastly  increased  liability  to  disease, 
which  may  practically  annihilate  the  race.  But  then  the  race, 
like  the  bursted  boiler,  could  not  be  said  to  wear  out,  while 
if  left  to  ordinary  conditions,  and  allowed  to  degenerate  back 
into  a  more  natural,  if  less  useful  state,  its  hold  on  life  would 
evidently  be  increased  rather  than  diminished. 

As  to  natural  varieties  or  races  under  normal  conditions, 
sexually  propagated,  it  could  readily  be  shown  that  they  are 
neither  more  nor  less  likely  to  disappear  from  any  inherent 
cause  than  the  species  from  which  they  originated.  Whether 
species  wear  out,  i.  e.,  have  their  rise,  culmination,  and  decline 
from  any  inherent  cause,  is  wholly  a  geological  and  very  specu- 
lative problem,  upon  which,  indeed,  only  vague  conjectures  can 
be  offered.  The  matter  actually  under  discussion  concerns 
cultivated  domesticated  varieties  only,  and,  as  to  plants,  is 
covered  by  two  questions. 

First :  Will  races  propagated  by  seed,  being  so  fixed  that 
they  come  true  to  seed,  and  purely  bred  (not  crossed  with 
any  other  sort),  continue  so  indefinitely,  or  will  they  run  out 
in  time  —  not  die  out,  perhaps,  but  lose  their  distinguishing 
characters?  Upon  this,  all  we  are  able  to  say  is,  that  we  know- 
no  reason  why  they  should  wear  out  or  deteriorate  from  any 
inherent  cause.  The  transient  existence  or  the  deterioration 
and  disappearance  of  many  such  races  are  sufficiently  ac- 
counted for  otherwise  ;  as  in  the  case  of  extraordinarily  exuber- 
ant varieties,  such  as  mammoth  fruits  or  roots,  by  increased 
liability  to  disease,  already  adverted  to,  or  by  the  failure  of 


176  ESSAYS. 

the  high  feeding  they  demand.  A  common  cause,  in  ordinary 
cases,  is  cross-breeding,  through  the  agency  of  wind  or  insects, 
which  is  difficult  to  guard  against.  Or  they  go  out  of  fashion 
and  are  superseded  by  others  thought  to  be  better,  and  so  the 
old  ones  disappear. 

Or,  finally,  they  revert  to  an  ancestral  form.  As  offspring 
tend  to  resemble  grandparents  almost  as  much  as  parents, 
and  as  a  line  of  close-bred  ancestry  is  generally  prepotent,  so 
newly  originated  varieties  have  always  a  tendency  to  rever- 
sion. This  is  pretty  sure  to  show  itself  in  some  of  the  pro- 
geny of  the  earlier  generations,  and  the  breeder  has  to  guard 
against  it  by  rigid  selection.  But  the  older  the  variety  is  — 
that  is,  the  longer  the  series  of  generations  in  which  it  has 
come  true  from  seed  —  the  less  the  chance  of  reversion  :  for 
now,  to  be  like  the  immediate  parent,  is  also  to  be  like  a  long 
line  of  ancestry  ;  and  so  all  the  influences  concerned  —  that 
is,  both  parental  and  ancestral  heritability  —  act  in  one  and 
the  same  direction.  So,  since  the  older  a  race  is  the  more 
reason  it  has  to  continue  true,  the  presumption  of  the  unlim- 
ited permanence  of  old  races  is  very  strong. 

Of  course  the  race  itself  may  give  off  new  varieties  ;  but 
that  is  no  interference  with  the  vitality  of  the  original  stock. 
If  some  of  the  new  varieties  supplant  the  old,  that  will  not  be 
because  the  unvaried  stock  is  worn  out  or  decrepit  with  age, 
but  because  in  wild  nature  the  newer  forms  are  better  adapted 
to  the  surroundings,  or,  under  man's  care,  better  adapted  to  his 
wants  or  fancies. 

The  second  question,  and  one  upon  which  the  discussion 
about  the  wearing  out  of  varieties  generally  turns,  is :  Will 
varieties  propagated  from  buds,  L  e.,  by  division,  grafts, 
bulbs,  tubers  and  the  like,  necessarily  deteriorate  and  die  out? 
First,  Do  they  die  out  as  a  matter  of  fact  ?  Upon  this,  the 
testimony  has  all  along  been  conflicting.  Andrew  Knight 
was  sure  that  they  do,  and  there  could  hardly  be  a  more 
trustworthy  witness. 

"  The  fact,"  he  says,  fifty  years  ago,  "  that  certain  varieties 
of  some  species  of  fruit  which  have  been  long  cultivated  can- 
not now  be  made  to  grow  in  the   same  soils  and  under  the 


DO  VARIETIES  WEAR   OUT?  177 

same  mode  of  management  which  was  a  century  ago  so  per- 
fectly successful,  is  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  controversy. 
Every  experiment  which  seemed  to  afford  the  slightest  pros- 
pect of  success  was  tried  by  myself  and  others  to  propagate 
the  old  varieties  of  the  Apple  and  Pear  which  formerly  con- 
stituted the  orchards  of  Herefordshire,  without  a  single 
healthy  or  efficient  tree  having  been  obtained  ;  and  I  believe 
all  attempts  to  propagate  these  varieties  have,  during  some 
years,  wholly  ceased  to  be  made.'' 

To  this  it  was  replied,  in  that  and  the  next  generation, 
that  cultivated  vines  have  been  transmitted  by  perpetual  di- 
vision from  the  time  of  the  Romans,  and  that  several  of  the 
sorts,  still  prized  and  prolific,  are  well  identified,  among  them 
the  ancient  Graecula,  considered  to  be  the  modern  Corinth  or 
Currant  grape,  which  has  immemorially  been  seedless  ;  that 
the  old  Nonpareil  apple  was  known  in  the  time  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  ;  that  the  White  Beurre  pears  of  France  have  been 
propagated  from  earliest  times  ;  and  that  Golden  pippins, 
St.  Michael  pears,  and  others  said  to  have  run  out,  were  still 
to  be  had  in  good  condition. 

Coming  down  to  the  present  year,  a  glance  through  the 
proceedings  of  pomological  societies  and  the  debates  of  farm- 
ers' clubs,  bring  out  the  same  difference  of  opinion.  The 
testimony  is  nearly  equally  divided.  Perhaps  the  larger  num- 
ber speak  of  the  deterioration  and  failure  of  particular  old 
sorts ;  but  when  the  question  turns  on  "  wearing  out,"  the 
positive  evidence  of  vigorous  trees  and  sound  fruits  is  most 
telling.  A  little  positive  testimony  outweighs  a  good  deal  of 
negative.  This  cannot  readily  be  explained  away,  while  the 
failure  may  be,  by  exhaustion  of  soil,  incoming  of  disease,  or 
alteration  of  climate  or  circumstances.  On  the  other  hand 
it  may  be  urged,  that,  if  a  variety  of  this  sort  is  fated  to  be- 
come decrepit  and  die  out,  it  is  not  bound  to  die  out  all  at 
once  or  everywhere  at  the  same  time.  It  would  be  expected 
first  to  give  way  wherever  it  was  weakest,  from  whatever 
cause.  This  consideration  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the 
final  question,  Are  old  varieties  of  this  kind  on  the  way  to  die 
out  on  account  of  their  age  or  any  inherent  limit  of  vitality  ? 


178  ESSAYS. 

Here,  again,  Mr.  Knight  took  an  extreme  view.  In  his 
essay  in  the  "Philosophical  Transactions,"  published  in  the 
year  1810,  he  propounded  the  theory,  not  merely  of  a  natural 
limit  to  varieties  from  grafts  and  cuttings,  but  even  that  they 
would  not  survive  the  natural  term  of  the  life  of  the  seedling: 
trees  from  which  they  were  originally  taken.  Whatever  may 
have  been  his  view  of  the  natural  term  of  the  life  of  a  tree,  and 
of  a  cutting  being  merely  a  part  of  the  individual  that  pro- 
duced it,  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  laid  himself  open  to  the 
effective  replies  which  were  made  from  all  sides  at  the  time, 
and  have  lost  none  of  their  force  since.  Weeping- Willows, 
Bread-fruits,  Bananas,  Sugar-cane,  Tiger-lilies,  Jerusalem 
Artichokes,  and  the  like,  have  been  propagated  for  a  long 
time  in  this  way,  without  evident  decadence. 

Moreover,  the  analogy  upon  which  his  hypothesis  is  founded 
will  not  hold.  Whether  or  not  one  adopts  the  present  writ- 
er's conception,  that  individuality  is  not  actually  reached  or 
maintained  in  the  vegetable  world,  it  is  clear  enough  that  a 
common  plant  or  tree  is  not  an  individual  in  the  sense  that  a 
horse  or  man,  or  any  one  of  the  higher  animals  is  —  that  it  is 
an  individual  only  in  the  sense  that  a  branching  zoophyte  or 
mass  of  coral  is.  Solvitur  crescendo :  the  tree  and  the  branch 
equally  demonstrate  that  they  are  not  individuals,  by  being 
divided  with  impunity  and  advantage,  with  no  loss  of  life  but 
much  increase.  It  looks  odd  enough  to  see  a  writer  like  Mr. 
Sisley  reproducing  the  old  hypothesis  in  so  bare  a  form  as 
this :  "  I  am  prepared  to  maintain  that  varieties  are  individ- 
uals, and  as  they  are  born  they  must  die,  like  other  individu- 
als." "  We  know  that  Oaks,  Sequoias  and  other  trees  live 
several  centuries,  but  how  many  we  do  not  exactly  know. 
But  that  they  must  die  no  one  in  his  senses  will  dispute." 
Now  what  people  in  their  senses  do  dispute  is,  not  that  the 
tree  will  die,  but  that  other  trees,  established  from  cuttings  of 
it,  will  die  with  it. 

But  does  it  follow  from  this  that  non-sexually  propagated 
varieties  are  endowed  with  the  same  power  of  unlimited  dura- 
tion that  are  possessed  by  varieties  and  species  proj)agated 
sexually  —  i.  e.  by  seed  ?     Those  who  think  so  jump  too  soon 


DO    VARIETIES  WEAR   OUT?  179 

at  their  conclusion.  For,  as  to  the  facts,  it  is  not  enough  to 
point  out  the  diseases  or  the  trouble  in  the  soil  and  in  the  at- 
mosphere, to  which  certain  old  fruits  are  succumbing*,  nor  to 
prove  that  a  parasitic  fungus  (Peronosp<>r<t  infestans  )  is  what 
is  the  matter  with  potatoes.  For  how  else  would  constitu- 
tional debility,  if  such  there  be,  more  naturally  man i Fest  itself 
than  in  such  increased  liability  or  diminished  resistance  to 
such  attacks?  And  if  you  say  that,  anyhow,  such  varieties 
do  not  die  of  old  age,  —  meaning  that  each  individual  at- 
tacked does  not  die  of  old  age,  but  of  manifest  disease,  —  it 
may  be  asked  in  return,  What  individual  man  ever  dies  of  old 
age  in  any  other  sense  than  of  a  similar  inability  to  resist  in- 
vasions which  in  earlier  years  would  have  produced  no  notice- 
able effect  ?  Aged  people  die  of  a  slight  cold  or  a  slight  acci- 
dent, but  the  inevitable  weakness  that  attends  old  age  is  what 
makes  these  slight  attacks  fatal. 

Finally,  there  is  a  philosophical  argument  which  tells 
strongly  for  some  limitations  of  the  duration  of  non-sexually- 
propagated  forms,  one  that  Knight  probably  never  thought 
of,  but  which  we  should  not  have  expected  recent  writers  to 
overlook.  When  Mr.  Darwin  announced  that  the  principle  of 
cross-fertilization  between  the  individuals  of  a  species  is  the 
plan  of  nature,  and  is  practically  so  universal  that  it  fairly 
sustains  his  inference  that  no  hermaphrodite  species  continu- 
ally self-fertilized  would  continue  to  exist,  he  made  it  clear  to 
all  who  apprehend  and  receive  the  principle,  that  a  series 
of  plants  propagated  by  buds  only  must  have  a  weaker  hold 
of  life  than  a  series  reproduced  by  seed.  For  the  former  is 
the  closest  kind  of  breeding.  Upon  this  ground  such  varie- 
ties may  be  expected  ultimately  to  die  out  ;  but  the  mills  of 
the  gods  grind  so  exceeding  slow  that  we  cannot  say  that 
any  particular  grist  has  been  actually  ground  out  under  hu- 
man observation. 

If  it  be  asked  how  the  asserted  principle  is  proved  or  made 
probable,  we  can  here  merely  say  that  the  proof  is  wholly  in- 
ferential. But  the  inference  is  drawn  from  such  a  vast  array 
of  facts  that  it  is  wellnigh  irresistible.  It  is  the  legitimate 
explanation  of  those  arrangements  in  nature  to  secure  cross- 


180  ESS  A  YS. 

fertilization  in  the  species,  either  constantly  or  occasionally, 
which  are  so  general,  so  varied  and  diverse,  and  we  may  add 
so  exquisite  and  wonderful,  that,  once  propounded,  we  see 
that  it  must  he  true.  What  else,  indeed,  is  the  meaning  and 
use  of  sexual  reproduction  ?  Not  simply  increase  in  num- 
bers ;  for  that  is  otherwise  effectually  provided  for  by  bud- 
ding propagation  in  plants  and  many  of  the  lower  animals. 
There  are  plants,  indeed,  of  the  lower  sort,  in  which  the  whole 
multiplication  takes  place  in  this  way,  and  with  great  rapidity. 
These  also  have  sexual  reproduction ;  but  in  it  two  old  indi- 
viduals are  always  destroyed  to  make  a  single  new  one  !  Here 
propagation  diminishes  the  number  of  individuals  fifty  per 
cent.  Who  can  suppose  that  such  a  costly  process  as  this, 
and  that  all  the  exquisite  arrangements  for  cross-fertilization 
in  hermaphrodite  plants,  do  not  subserve  some  most  important 
purpose?  How  and  why  the  union  of  two  organisms,  or 
generally  of  two  very  minute  portions  of  them,  should  rein- 
force vitality,  we  do  not  know  and  can  hardly  conjecture. 
But  this  must  be  the  meaning  of  sexual  reproduction. 

The  conclusion  of  the  matter  from  the  scientific  point  of 
view  is,  that  sexually  propagated  varieties,  or  races,  although 
liable  to  disappear  through  change,  need  not  be  expected  to 
wear  out,  and  there  is  no  proof  that  they  do  ;  but  that  non- 
sexually  propagated  varieties,  though  not  liable  to  change, 
may  theoretically  be  expected  to  wear  out,  but  to  be  a  very 
long  time  about  it. 


ESTIVATION  AND  ITS  TERMINOLOGY.1 

The  term  aestivation,  to  denote  the  arrangement  of  the 
parts  of  the  calyx,  corolla,  etc.,  in  the  bud,  as  well  as  that  of 
vernation  for  leaves  in  a  leaf-bud,  was  introduced  by  Linnaeus. 
He  did  not  elaborate  the  former  subject  as  he  did  the  latter, 
and  the  few  terms  given  to  the  modes  he  recognized  are  for 
the  most  part  denned  merely  by  a  reference  to  their  use  in 
vernation.  ^Estivation  as  a  botanical  character  is  compara- 
tively recent,  and  its  terminology  is  not  yet  quite  satisfactorily 
settled.  I  propose  to  consider,  (1)  what  the  leading  modes 
are,  and  (2)  how  they  are  to  be  designated. 

(1)  In  the  first  place,  the  modes  of  aestivation  may  be  con- 
veniently divided  into  two  classes,  those  in  which  the  parts 
overlap,  and  those  in  which  they  do  not. 

Of  overlapping  aestivation,  only  two  principal  kinds  need 
be  primarily  distinguished,  namely :  1.  where  some  pieces 
overlap  and  others  are  overlapped,  i.  e.,  some  have  both 
margins  exterior  and  others  both  margins  interior  or  cov- 
ered ;  2.  where  each  piece  of  a  circle  is  overlapped  by  its 
neighbor  on  one  side  while  it  overlaps  its  neighbor  on  the 
other.  There  are  mixtures  and  subordinate  modifications  of 
these  two,  but  no  third  mode. 

In  aestivation  without  overlapping,  there  is,  first,  the  rare 
case  in  which  the  parts  of  the  whorl  or  cycle  never  come  into 
contact  in  the  bud;  and,  secondly,  that  in  which  they  impinge 
by  their  edges  only.  There  is  also  the  case  in  which  both 
margins  of  each  piece  are  rolled  or  bent  inward,  and  the  rarer 
one  in  which  they  are  turned  outward  ;  and  the  apex  of  each 
piece  may  comport  itself  in  any  of  these  ways.  But  these 
dispositions  are  those  of  the  pieces  or  leaves  taken  separately, 
and  the  terms  applied  to  them  are  the  same  as  in  vernation  or 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  x.  339.     (ISTo.) 


182  ESS  A  YS. 

prefoliation,  are  used  in  the  same  sense,  and  so  are  not  at  all 
peculiar  to  aestivation  or  prefloration.  The  like  may  be  said 
of  a  remaining  mode,  which  belongs,  however,  to  a  different 
category,  that  in  which  the  parts  being  united  into  a  tube  or 
cup,  this  is  bodily  plaited  into  folds,  or  otherwise  disposed ; 
in  which  case  the  margin  of  the  tube  or  cup,  or  such  lobes  as 
it  may  have,  may  exhibit  any  of  the  modes  of  aestivation  above 
indicated. 

Without  further  notice,  then,  of  this  last,  the  plicate  or 
plaited  aestivation,  and  of  analogous  conformations  of  the  tube 
or  cup  of  a  calyx  or  corolla,  or  of  the  disposition  of  each  piece 
individually  (whether  re  volute,  involute,  reflexed,  inflexed, 
and  the  like),  about  the  terminology  of  which  there  is  no 
question,  —  omitting,  likewise,  for  the  latter  reason,  the  case 
of  open  aestivation,  —  there  are  left  three  types  to  deal  with : 

I.  With  some  pieces  of  the  set  wholly  exterior  in  the  bud 
to  others. 

II.  With  each  piece  covered  at  one  margin,  and  covering 
by  the  other. 

III.  With  each  piece  squarely  abutting  against  its  neigh- 
bors on  either  side,  without  overlapping. 

In  modes  II  and  III,  the  pieces  are  all  on  the  same  level 
and  are  to  be  viewed  as  members  of  a  whorl.  In  mode  I,  al- 
though they  may  sometimes  be  members  of  a  whorl,  some 
parts  of  which  have  become  external  to  others  in  the  course 
of  growth,  they  may,  and  in  many  cases  must  belong  either  to 
two  or  more  successive  whorls  (as  in  the  corolla  of  Papa- 
veracece,  and  even  the  calyx  of  Craciferm,  the  upper  or  inner 
of  course  covered  by  the  lower  or  outer),  or  to  the  spiral 
phyllotaxy  of  alternate  leaves. 

The  type  of  the  latter,  and  the  common  disposition  when 
the  parts  are  five,  is  with  two  pieces  exterior,  the  third  ex- 
terior by  one  edge  and  interior  by  the  other,  and  two  wholly 
interior.  This  is  simply  a  cycle  in  §  phyllotaxy,  the  third 
piece  being  necessarily  within  and  covered  at  one  margin  by 
the  first,  while  it  is  exterior  to  and  with  its  other  margin 
covers  the  fifth,  this  and  the  fourth  being  of  course  wholly  in- 
terior.    So,  likewise,  when  the  parts  are  three,  one  exterior, 


ESTIVATION  AND  ITS    TERMINOLOGY.  183 

one  half  exterior,  and  one  interior  or  overlapped,  the  aestiva- 
tion  accords  with  J  phyllotaxy.  When  of  eight  or  higher 
numbers  the  spiral  order  is  usually  all  the  more  manifest. 
When  of  four  or  six,  the  case  is  one  of  whorls  (opposite 
leaves  representing  the  simplest  whorl),  either  of  a  pair  of 
whorls  (as  in  Epimedium,  Berberis,  etc.),  or  a  single  whorl, 
the  parts  of  which  have  overlapped  in  cyclic  order. 

(2)  As  to  the  terminology.  Linmeus  in  the  "  Philosophia 
Botanica  "  treats  only  of  vernation,  there  termed  "  Foliatio." 
For  this  the  former  term  was  substituted,  and  that  of  aestivation 
for  the  disposition  of  petals  in  a  flower-bud,  introduced,  as  I 
suppose  (not  having  the  volume  to  consult),  in  the  Termini 
Botanici,  published  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the  "  Amoenitates 
Academics,"  1762.  I  refer  to  it  only  through  Giseke's  edi- 
tion, 1781.  Here  the  terms  are  convoluta,  imbricata,  condu- 
plicata,  defined  only  by  reference  to  the  section  vein  at  io,  and 
valvata,  unhappily  explained  by  a  reference  to  the  glumes  of 
Grasses,  also  "  inaequivalvis ;  si  magnitudine  discrepant." 
Imbricata  is  the  only  term  besides  valvata  which  directly 
relates  to  the  arrangement  of  petals,  etc.,  inter  se  ;  and  the 
reference  takes  us  back  to  something  "  tectus,  ut  nuclus  non 
appareat,"  covered  as  with  tiles,  we  may  infer.  In  the  "  Phi- 
losophia Botanica,"  under  the  section  Foliatio,  the  definition 
of  imbricata  is  "  quando  parallele,  superficie  recta,  sibi  in- 
vicem  incumbunt."  This  would  apply  either  to  mode  I,  or 
mode  II,  according  as  invicem  is  understood  ;  but  the  dia- 
gram (tab.  x.  6)  shows  that  case  I  is  intended.  Convoluta 
refers  to  the  rolling  of  a  petal  or  leaf  by  itself,  as  does  con- 
duplicata  to  its  folding ;  but  Linnaeus  gives  two  figures,  one 
of  a  single  rolled-up  leaf,  the  other  of  one  leaf  rolled  up  within 
another. 

Finally,  among  the  modes  of  vernation  indicated  by  Lin- 
naeus, there  is  one  which  it  is  important  here  to  notice,  relat- 
ing as  it  does  to  the  arrangement  of  a  pair  of  leave-  in  the 
bud,  and  evidently  quite  as  applicable  to  a  whorl  of  a  larger 
number  of  parts  than  two  ;   i.  e.  : 

"  Obvoluta,  quum  margines  alterni  comprehendunt  oppo- 
siti  folii  marginem  rectum  "  (Philosophia  Botanica,    105). 


184  ESSA  YS. 

Or,  in  Termini  Botanici,  "  pagina  superiore  lateribus  ap- 
proximatis  ita  ut  alterum  latus  distinguat  alterum  folium." 

This,  as  the  definition  and  the  diagram  in  the  "  Philosophia 
Botanica  "  show,  answers  in  aestivation  to  mode  II.  It  was 
early  taken  up  as  such  by  Mirbel  (Elem.  Phys.  Veg.  et  Bot., 
1815,  ii.  738,  739),  where  the  polypetalous  corolla  of  Her- 
mannia  and  Oxalis  and  the  gamopetalous  corolla  of  Apocyuece 
are  cited  as  examples. 

Valvate  aestivation,  our  mode  III,  is  rightly  defined  by 
Mirbel  in  the  same  place,  and  still  earlier  by  Brown. 

Linnaeus  made  no  use  of  aestivation  as  a  character.  Nor 
did  Jussieu,  except  merely  that,  in  his  "  Genera  Plantaruni," 
the  petals  of  Malvaviscus  are  said  to  be  convolute. 

In  De  Candolle's  "  Theorie  Eleinentaire,"  1813  —  a  still 
unsurpassed  treatise,  upon  which,  next  to  the  "  Philosophia 
Botanica,"  our  botanical  glossology  rests  —  neither  the  word 
aestivation,  nor  its  synonym,  prefloration,  is  mentioned,  and 
even  vernation  or  prefoliation  is  equally  omitted. 

But  the  history  of  aestivation  as  a  botanical  character  be- 
gan in  a  work  published  three  years  earlier,  namely,  in  R. 
Brown's  "  Prodromus  Florae  Novae  Hollandiae,"  1810.  The 
preface  notes  that  it  was  first  accurately  observed  by  Grew. 
In  it  Brown  defines  only  the  valvate  mode,  "ubi  margines 
foliolorum  vel  laciniarum  integumenti  invicem  applicati  sunt, 
capsulae  valvular um  in  modum."  In  the  body  of  the  work, 
wherever  it  is  important,  the  aestivation  is  noted  as  valvate, 
imbricate,  plicate,  induplicate,  etc. ;  and  the  open  aestivation 
(aperta)  is  named  by  him  in  a  subsequent  paper. 

Being  the  first  to  employ  aestivation  systematically,  and  to 
develop  its  value,  Brown's  terminology  for  its  modes  may  well 
be  considered  authoritative.  And  so  indeed  it  is,  as  far  as  it 
goes.  But  he  did  not  make  one  important  distinction,  namely, 
that  between  our  I  and  II.  Imbricate,  in  his  use,  comprises 
all  kinds  of  overlapping,  that  of  the  corolla  of  Apocy?iece  and 
of  a  Gentian,  as  well  as  that  of  a  Primrose.  He  must  have 
not  only  noticed  the  difference,  but  also  appreciated  its  gen- 
eral importance,  notwithstanding  the  occasional  passage  of 
the  one  into  the  other.     He  must  have  also  observed  that  in 


AESTIVATION  AND  ITS   TERMINOLOGY.  185 

many  cases,  as  in  Asclepias  for  instance,  the  mode  II  passes 
into  mode  III,  the  valvate,  and  may  possibly  have  discerned 
that  under  a  phyllotaxic  view  these  are  more  nearly  related 
than  either  is  to  mode  I.  I  find,  however,  only  one  instance 
in  which  he  has  indicated  the  distinction,  namely,  in  the  char- 
acter of  Burchellia,  furnished  to  the  "Botanical  Register," 
t.  435,  1820.  Of  its  corolla  it  is  said  :  "  aestivatione  niutuo 
imbricata  contorta."  The  phrase  is  interesting,  as  it  seems 
to  recognize  the  distinction  between  the  mode  of  overlapping 
(which  is  that  of  our  mode  II)  and  the  torsion,  which  only 
now  and  then  accompanies  it.  Looking  over  the  "  Plants 
Javanicae  Rariores  "  to  see  if  there  is  any  later  use,  I  find  no 
instance  in  which  Brown  has  occasion  to  speak  of  this  mode 
II ;  but  it  occurs  in  the  portion  of  his  associate,  Mr.  Bennett, 
who  (on  p.  212)  describes  the  petals  of  Sonerila  as  "  aestiva- 
tione convoluta."  Had  this  term  been  thus  employed  by 
Brown  himself,  and  at  an  earlier  date,  I  should  regard  the 
terminology  of  these  three  modes  of  aestivation  as  settled, 
namely :  I,  imbricata,  II,  convoluta,  III,  valvata.  The  first 
and  the  third  are  established  beyond  question,  although  some- 
what remains  to  be  said  about  the  first. 

But  meanwhile  another  use  has  prevailed  as  respects  the 
second.  In  De  Candolle's  "  Prodromus,"  the  first  general  or 
considerable  work  after  Brown  in  which  terms  of  aestivation 
are  employed,  this  mode  is  almost  uniformly  characterized 
as  contorta.  I  cannot  at  this  moment  trace  the  term  to  its 
origin.  It  was  probably  suggested  by  the  name  ContortoB,  said 
to  have  been  given  by  Linnaeus  to  the  Apoc3meous  natural 
order;  and  it  seemed  appropriate  to  the  instances  in  which 
the  strong  convolution  of  rounded  petals,  as  in  Oxalis,  or 
their  lobes,  as  in  Phlox,  give  an  appearance  like  that  of  twist- 
ing, although  there  is  no  twist  or  torsion.  But  it  is  to  just 
such  cases,  in  which  there  is  most  of  seeming  twisting  on 
account  of  the  strong  convolution,  that  the  term  convolute  is 
now  and  then  assigned  in  the  "  Prodromus" :  as  in  the  char- 
acter of  Byttneriacccp,  and  that  of  Malvaviscus.  The  latter 
may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  peculiarity  that  the  petals 
do  not  uncoil  in  anthesis.     But  in  Apocynacece,  in  the  M  Pro- 


186  ESSAYS. 

dromus,"  the  terms  convoluta  and  contorta  are  seemingly 
employed  synonymously,  or  nearly  so  (the  latter  most  fre- 
quently) ;  at  least  I  see  no  difference  between  the  aestivation 
of  Allamanda,  said  to  be  contorted,  and  that  of  Vinca  (rosea), 
said  to  be  convolute.  Endlicher  in  this  regard  follows  the 
"  Prodromus."  In  the  new  "  Genera  Plantarum  "  by  Ben- 
tham  and  Hooker  this  mode  is  most  commonly  designated  as 
contorta,  sometimes  as  contorto-imbricata,  rarely  (Philadel- 
phia, etc.)  convoluta.  I  have  myself,  from  a  period  as  early 
as  1340,  employed  the  term  convolute,  thinking  it  unadvis- 
able  to  have  two  names  for  the  same  thing,  and  wishing  to 
restrict,  if  it  might  be,  the  term  contorted  to  cases  of  torsion. 
Adrien  de  Jussieu,  on  the  other  hand,  used  convolute  (with 
strict  Linnaean  propriety)  for  regular  imbrication  with  a  high 
degree  of  overlapping,  thus  giving  two  names  to  different  de- 
grees of  the  same  thing. 

It  being  conceded,  I  presume,  that  the  mode  II  should  be 
specifically  distinguished,  what  name,  on  the  whole,  ought  it 
to  bear  ?  If  we  follow  prevalent  usage,  contorta  will  be  the 
term.  But  this  term  was  unknown  in  this  sense  to  the  found- 
ers of  aestivation,  Linnaeus  and  Brown ;  it  correctly  expresses 
the  real  state  of  things  in  only  a  few  cases ;  and  where  there 
is  torsion,  it  leads  to  a  most  awkward  way  of  expressing  it. 
We  have  to  write  —  "  lobes  of  the  corolla  contorted  and 
twisted :  corollae  lobi  contorti  et  torti,"  introducing  dextror- 
sum  or  sinistrorsum,1  to  express  the  direction  of  the  overlap- 
ping and  of  the  torsion,  which  are  not  always  the  same.  So 
the  most  current  name  is  the  least  appropriate.  Convoluta 
is  as  good  a  name  as  can  be,  and  its  use  in  the  present  sense 
is  not  unconformable  with  the  Linnaean  use  in  vernation. 
When  well  carried  out,  three  or  five  or  more  petals,  as  the 
case  may  be,  are  simply  rolled  up  together.  When  the  over- 
lapping is  slight,  there  is  simply  the  tendency  to  convolution. 
But  if,  as  in  other  nomenclature,  priority  gives  a  paramount 

1  I  note  with  satisfaction  that  Bentham  and  Hooker  use  these  terms  to 
signify  from  left  to  right,  or  from  right  to  left,  of  a  person,  supposed  to 
stand  outside  of  the  closed  bud,  which  is  surely  the  natural  position  of  the 
observer. 


ESTIVATION  AND  ITS    TERMINOLOGY.  187 

claim,  obvoluta  will  be  the  proper  term,  beginning  as  it  did 
with  Linnaeus  for  vernation,  and  taken  up,  as  it  was  very 
early,  by  Mirbel  for  aestivation.  The  only  objections  to  it 
are,  first,  that  it  has  never  come  into  systematic  use,  and,  sec- 
ond, that  ob,  in  the  composition  of  botanical  terms,  commonly 
stands  for  obversely  or  inversely.  But  obvoluta  is  not  bur- 
dened with  this  signification:  it  is  classical  for  "wrapped 
round,"  as  is  convoluta  for  rolled  together.  I  conclude  that 
one  or  the  other  of  these  two  terms  ought  to  be  used. 

Finally,  although  there  is  little,  if  any,  practical  misuse, 
there  is  some  mis-definition,  of  the  term  imbricate  as  applied 
to  aestivation.  Adrien  de  Jussieu  defines  it  well  (in  Coura 
Elementaire,  308)  in  the  phrase  uLa  prefloraison  spirale  est 
aussi  nomme  imbriquee"  ;  and  in  noting  that  when  the  num- 
ber stops  at  five,  the  pieces  fall  into  two  exterior,  two  interior, 
and  one  (the  third  in  the  spiral)  intermediate,  this  making 
what  is  called  "  aestivatio  quincuncialis."  1  This  is  clear  and 
to  the  point.  But  other  authors  have  had  a  fancy  for  distin- 
guishing between  quincuncial  and  imbricate  (as  if  the  former 
were  not  the  typical  case  of  the  latter  when  the  parts  arc  five), 
and  so  have  had  to  devise  something  else  to  answer  to  imbri- 
cate. Alphonse  De  Candolle  (in  his  Introd.  Bot.,  i.  154, 
written  before  phyllotaxy  was  well  understood),  after  rele- 
gating imbricative  to  the  category  of  a  crowd  of  verticils, 
and  remarking  that  the  quincuncial  is  sometimes  confounded 
with  the  imbricate,  adds  that  some  confound  also  under  this 
latter  name  the  case  in  which  there  is  one  exterior  piece,  one 
interior,  and  three  covered  at  one  margin  but  free  at  the  other. 
I  know  not  where  this  began  ;  but  its  latest  reproduction  is  in 
Le  Maout  and  Decaisne's  "Traite*  Generate  "and  in  the  Eng- 
lish translation  of  it.  In  the  diagram  the  pieces  are  numbered 
directly  round  the  circle  from  1  to  5,  the  fifth  coming  next 
the  first :  "  so  they  thus  complete  one  turn  of  a  spiral,"  — 
which  shows  that  Le  Maout  had  vague  ideas  of  phyllotaxy,  of 

1  The  name  quincuncial  answers  the  purpose  after  definition,  and  has 
long  been  in  use  ;  but  this  arrangement  in  diagram  is  wholly  unlike  the 
quincunx,  with  its  four  pieces  or  stars  in  the  periphery,  or  at  the  angles 
of  a  square,  and  one  in  the  centre. 


188  ESSAYS. 

which  he  seems  to  have  invented  a  new  (J)  order.  Moreover, 
this  is  essentially  identical  with  the  "  cochlear "  aestivation 
of  the  same  work  (not  of  Lindley)  ;  and  Eichler,  in  his  "  Blii- 
thendia°ramme,"  adopts  this  name  (unsuitable  though  it 
be)  for  this  particular  arrangement,  whatever  be  the  position 
of  the  inclosed  or  inclosing  petal.  A  glance  shows  that  this 
supposed  "  true  imbricate  aestivation  "  is  a  slight  and  not  very 
uncommon  deviation  (by  the  displacement  of  what  should  be 
the  interior  margin  of  one  of  the  petals  during  growth)  of  the 
mode  II,  variously  termed  obvolute,  convolute,  or  contorted 
aestivation.  But  it  is  so  intermediate  between  this  and  the 
quincuncially  imbricate  as  perhaps  to  justify  Brown  in  apply- 
ing the  name  imbricate  generically  to  all  the  overlapping 
modes.  I  see,  since  the  above  was  written,  that  Eichler,  in 
his  "  Bluthendiagramme,"  in  effect  does  this.  I  find  also, 
that  Eichler  uniformly  employs  the  term  convolute,  or  con- 
volutive,  as  I  have  done,  instead  of  contorted.  I  should  hope, 
rather  than  immediately  expect,  that  this  use  would  become 
general. 


A  PILGRIMAGE  TO  TOREETA.1 

Ordered  to  go  south  until  I  should  meet  the  tardy  spring 
and  summer,  I  was  expected  to  follow  the  beaten  track  to 
east  Florida.  But  I  wished  rather  to  avoid  the  crowd  of  in- 
valids and  pleasure  travelers,  and  turned  my  attention  in 
preference  to  western  Florida,  determined  that,  if  possible,  I 
would  make  a  pious  pilgrimage  to  the  secluded  native  haunts 
of  that  rarest  of  trees,  the  Torreya  taxifolia. 

All  that  I  knew,  or  could  at  the   moment  learn,  was,  that 
this  peculiar  evergreen  Yew-like  tree— prized  by  arboricul- 
turists for  its  elegance,  and  dear  to  us  botanists  for  the  name 
it  bears  and  commemorates — grew  on  the  banks  of  the  Apa- 
lachicola  River,  somewhere  near  the  confluence  of  the  Flint 
and  Chattahoochee,  which  by  their  union  form  it.    It  was  there 
discovered,  nearly  forty  years  ago,  by  Mr.  Hardy  B.  (room, 
and  had  since  been  seen,  at  two  or  three  stations,  by  his  sur- 
viving associate  Dr.  Chapman,  of  Apalachicola,  author  of  the 
Southern  Flora.     Mr.  Croom,  upon  ascertaining  that  lie  was 
the  fortunate  discoverer  of  an  entirely  new  type  of  coniferous 
trees,  desired  that  it  should  bear  Dr.  Torrey's  name ;  and  the 
genus  Torreya  was  accordingly  so  named  and  characterized 
by  the  Scotch  botanist  Arnott.     It  is  of  the  Yew  family,  in 
foliage  and  in  male  flowers  much  resembling  the  Yew  itself, 
but  more  graceful  than   the  European  Yew-tree,  wholly  des- 
titute of  the  berry-like  cup   which   characterizes   the  latter 
genus,  and  with  the  naked  seed  itself  fleshly-coated,  and  larger 
than  an  olive,  which  it  resembles  in  shape  and  appearance. 
One  young  tree,  brought  or  sent  by  Mr.  Croom  himself,  has 
been  kept  alive  at  New  York  -  showing  its  aptitude  for  a 
colder  climate  than  that  of  which  it  is  a  native  — and  has  been 
more  or  less  multiplied  by  cuttings.2     Sprigs  from  this  tree 

1  "  American  Agriculturist,"  1875,  262. 

*  "The  American  Agriculturist  »  for  May  states  that  the  tree  spoken 


190  ESSAYS. 

or  its  progeny  were  appropriately  borne  by  the  members  of 
the  Torrey  Botanical  Club,  at  its  founder's  funeral,  two  years 
ago,  and  laid  upon  his  coffin.  But  very  few  botanists  have 
ever  seen  the  tree  growing  wild  and  in  its  full  development. 
I  was  desirous  to  be  one  of  the  number. 

Among  the  broad,  black  lines  with  which  the  railway  map 
is  chequered,  I  found  one  which  terminates  at  Chattahoochee. 
This  was  the  objective  point,  and  the  way  to  it  seemed  plain 
enough,  though  long.  Pilgrimages  to  famous  shrines  by  rail- 
way, in  the  Old  World,  are  nowadays  systematized  and  made 
easy.  The  untried  one  which  I  undertook  appeared  to  offer  no 
j)rivation  or  difficulty,  except  the  uncertainty  whether  I  should 
be  fortunate  enough  to  find  the  grove  which  I  sought.  And, 
indeed,  there  was  little  privation  to  speak  of.  It  was,  how- 
ever, rather  trying  to  us  (i.  e.,  to  myself  and  my  companion 
in  travel  and  life),  when,  after  leaving  Savannah  on  an  early 
April  morning,  with  the  assured  understanding  that  we  should 
reach  Chattahoochee  late  that  evening,  we  learned  that  we  were 
to  be  left  for  twenty  hours  at  a  small  hamlet  on  the  borders 
of  east  Florida,  named  Live  Oak,  a  manifest  lucus  a  non 
lucendo,  as  there  were  no  Live  Oak-trees  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, but  a  prevalent  growth  of  Long-leaved  Pines.  There 
was  some  good  botanizing  to  console  us,  and,  thanks  to  the 
railroad  conductor  for  directing  us  aright,  unpretending  but 
truly  comfortable  quarters  for  the  night.  Then,  the  next  day, 
resuming  our  journey  after  a  twelve-o'clock  dinner,  which  we 
were  to  mend  with  a  supper  at  Tallahassee,  we  were  at  length 
informed  that  we  were  to  be  supperless ;  that  the  stations 
both  of  Tallahassee  and  Quincy  were  out  of  town  and  out  of 
reach  of  all  edibles ;  that  Chattahoochee  station,  to  be  reached 
after  ten  o'clock,  was  only  a  freight-house  on  the  wild  and 
wooded  bank  of   the  river,  built  upon  piles    in  the  swamp, 

of,  or  its  seed,  "  was  brought  from  Florida  by  the  late  distinguished  Major 
Le  Conte."  I  am  confident  that  this  is  a  mistake,  and  that  Le  Conte  knew 
nothing  of  this  tree  in  its  native  station.  If  my  recollection  is  correct,  at 
least  two  seedling  trees  were  placed  in  Dr.  Torrey's  hands  by  Mr.  Croom, 
one  of  which  was  consigned  to  A.  J.  Downing,  of  Newburgh,  the  ultimate 
fate  of  which  is  unknown  to  me,  the  other  to  Mr.  Hogg,  senior,  which,  as 
"The  American  Agriculturist"  states,  is  now  in  Central  Park. 


A    PILGRIMAGE    TO    TORRE YA.  191 

reached  at  ordinary  times  over  a  mile  of  trestles,  and  now  so 
overflowed  that  it  probably  could  not  be  reached  at  all.  cer- 
tainly not  that  night;  that  the  train  would  stop  for  the  night 
two  or  three  miles  back  in  the  woods,  where  the  agent  had 
taken  up  his  abode  in  a  box-car ;  that  the  town  of  Chattahoo- 
chee, a  mile  away,  large  as  it  appeared  on  the  map.  consisted 
mainly  of  a  state-prison,  and  a  couple  of  grocery  Bhops,  neither 
of  which  was  quite  proper  for  passing  a  night  in,  even  if  we 
could  reach  it;  in  fine,  that  our  only  course  would  be  to  sleep 
in  the  car  (which  made  no  provision  for  it),  and  crave  from 
the  agent  of  the  road  a  share  of  his  breakfast. 

The  kind  and  intelligent  fellow-travelers  as  far  as  Talla- 
hassee and  Quincy,  who  gave  us  this  disheartening  informa- 
tion, finding  that  we  were  not  disposed  to  stop  short  of  our 
object,  remarked  that  they  had  set  us  down  as  eminently 
philosophical  people,  since  we  had  passed  a  night  at  Live 
Oak  and  still  possessed  our  souls  in  patience  (a  view  which 
a  couple  who  had  stopped  at  the  hotel  there  practically  •on- 
firmed),  and  so  left  us  with  their  good  wishes,  but  evidently 
faint  hopes.  The  weekly  steamboat,  which  was  to  call  at  the 
landing  next  day,  would  eventually  relieve  us;  and  so  we 
resolved  to  make  the  best  of  it.  The  worthy  young  conductor, 
who  was  to  sleep  in  the  car  also,  kindly  proffered  a  share  of 
his  supper;  but  we  fortunately  had  a  bottle  of  cold  tea,  some 
crusts  of  bread  ten  days  old,  and  wafer-biscuits,  upon  which 
we  scantily  supped,  and  then,  folding  around  us  such  drapery 
and  wraps  as  we  had,  lay  down  to  sleep  upon  the  couches 
which  the  conductor  ingeniously  arranged  for  us,  by  some 
skillful  adjustment  of  the  car-seats.  In  the  morning,  after  due 
ablutions  made  at  the  tank  of  the  locomotive,  we  were  hos- 
pitably welcomed  by  the  agent,  General  Dickison,  and  his 
son,  to  a  much-needed  share  of  their  breakfast  in  the  sta- 
tionary box-car,  which  served  both  as  bedroom,  parlor,  and 
dining-room. 

To  our  great  delight  we  found  that  General  Dickison  knew 
the  tree  which  I  was  in  search  of  :  and  it  was  arranged  that 
his  son  should  conduct  me  to  the  locality,  not  Bar  distant  So 
striking  an  evergreen  tree  could  not  fail  of  notice.    The  people 


192  ESSAYS. 

of  the  district  knew  it  by  the  name  of  "  Stinking  Cedar  "  or 
"  Savine  "  —  the  unsavory  adjective  referring  to  a  peculiar 
unpleasant  smell  which  the  wounded  bark  exhales.  The  tim- 
ber is  valued  for  fence-posts  and  the  like,  and  is  said  to  be 
as  durable  as  red  cedar.  I  may  add  that,  in  consequence  of 
the  stir  we  made  about  it,  the  people  are  learning  to  call  it 
Torreya.  They  are  proud  of  having  a  tree  which,  as  they 
have  rightly  been  told,  grows  nowhere  else  in  the  world. 

My  desire  for  a  sight  of  it  was  soon  gratified.  Making  our 
way  into  the  woods  north  of  the  railroad  track,  along  the 
ridges  covered  with  a  mixed  growth  of  Pines  and  deciduous 
trees,  I  soon  discerned  a  thrifty  young  Torreya,  and  after- 
wards several  of  larger  size,  some  of  them  with  male  flowers 
just  developed. 

As  we  approached  the  first  one,  I  told  my  companion  that 
I  expected  to  find  under  its  shade  a  peculiar  low  herb,  which 
I  described,  but  had  never  yet  seen  growing  wild.  And  there, 
indeed,  it  was,  —  greatly  to  the  wonderment  of  my  companion 
—  the  botanically  curious  little  Croomia  pauciflora,  just  as  it 
was  found  by  Mr.  Croom,  when  he  also  discovered  the  tree, 
nearly  forty  years  ago,  probably  at  a  station  several  miles 
farther  south.  I  was  a  pupil  and  assistant  of  the  lamented 
Torrey  when  Mr.  Croom  brought  to  him  specimens,  both  of 
the  tree  and  of  the  berb,  both  new  genera.  The  former,  as  I 
have  stated,  was  named  for  Dr.  Torrey  by  his  correspondent 
Arnott.  The  latter  was  dedicated  to  its  discoverer  by  Dr. 
Torrey.  I  well  remember  Mr.  Croom's  remark  upon  the  oc- 
casion, that  if  his  name  was  deemed  worthy  of  botanical 
honors,  it  was  gratifying  to  him,  and  becoming  to  the  circum- 
stances, that  it  should  be  borne  by  the  unpretending  herb 
which  delighted  to  shelter  itself  under  the  noble  Torreya.  It 
is  not,  as  Mr.  Croom  then  supposed,  exclusively  so  found ; 
for  it  grows  also  in  the  central  and  upper  portions  of  Alabama 
and  Georgia,  where  Torreya  is  unknown,  but  where  I  fancy 
it  may  once  have  flourished.  I  cannot  here  detail  the  reasons 
for  this  supposition. 

There  is  a  second  Torreya  in  Japan,  founded  on  Thunberg's 
Taxus  nucifera,  of  which  I  saw  original  specimens  at  the 


A   PILGRIMAGE    TO    TORREYA.  193 

British  Museum,  in  the  winter  of  1838-9,  and  then  identified 
the  genus.  There  is  likewise  in  Japan  a  second  Crooinia, 
very  probably  in  company  with  the  Torreya.  A  third  Tor- 
reya  inhabits  California,  but  it  has  no  associate  Croomia. 

I  have  formerly  treated  of  the  peculiar  distribution  of  these 
genera  and  species  between  the  United  States  and  Japan, 
have  collocated  a  large  number  of  equally  striking  similar 
instances,  and  have  offered  certain  speculations  in  explanation 
of  them.  The  views  maintained  have  been  more  and  more 
confirmed,  and  are  now  adopted  by  the  leading  philosophical 
botanists. 

The  few  hours  devoted  to  this  first  search  for  Torreya, 
pleasant  as  they  were,  yet  were  too  scantily  rewarded  to 
satiate  my  interest.  I  saw  no  tree  with  trunk  over  six  inches 
in  diameter,  and  found  no  female  blossoms.  It  was  necessary 
to  hasten  back  to  the  railway  car,  to  await  the  expected  sum- 
mons to  the  steamboat.  I  bore  with  me,  besides  my  botani- 
cal specimens,  a  stick  of  Torreya,  suitable  for  a  staff,  which 
I  propose  to  make  over  to  the  President  of  the  Torrey  Botani- 
cal Club,  for  the  official  baton.  Before  long  the  whistle  of 
the  steamboat  announced  its  approach  to  the  landing,  and 
offered  us  a  prospect  of  a  much-needed  dinner ;  the  water 
had  fallen  sufficiently  to  allow  us  to  be  conveyed  to  the  wharf 
upon  a  hand-car,  and  so  we  embarked  for  Apalachicola  via 
Bainbridge.  That  is,  we  went  up  the  Flint  River  about  forty 
miles  and  thence  back  in  the  night,  past  the  place  of  em- 
barkation. 

I  will  not  here  give  any  account  of  a  delightful  ten  days' 
episode,  beginning  with  the  voyage  down  the  brimming  river, 
bordered  with  almost  unbroken  green  of  every  tint,  from  the 
dark  background  of  Long-leaved  Pines  to  the  tender  new 
verdure  of  the  Liquidambar  and  other  deciduous  trees  in  their 
freshest  development,  interspersed  with  the  deep  and  lustrous 
hue  of  Magnolia  grand  if  or  a,  and,  when  the  banks  were  low, 
dominated  by  weird,  naked  trunks  of  Southern  Cypress  (Taxo- 
dium),  their  branches  hung  with  long  tufts  and  streamers  of 
the  gray  and  sombre  Southern  Moss  (Tillandsia)  below,  while 
above    they  were    just   putting    forth    their  delicate    foliage. 


194  ESSAYS. 

Along  the  lower  part  of  the  river,  occasional  Palmettoes  gave 
a  still  more  tropical  aspect.  Then  followed  a  week  and  more 
at  dead  and  dilapidated,  but  still  charming,  Apalachicola, 
where  the  post-office  opens  on  Monday  evenings,  when  the 
steamboat  arrives,  and  closes  for  a  week  the  next  morning, 
when  she  departs,  —  where  the  climate,  thanks  to  the  embrac- 
ing Gulf,  is  as  delicious  in  summer  as  it  is  bland  in  winter  ; 
where  game,  the  best  of  fish,  and  the  most  luscious  oysters  are 
to  be  had  almost  for  nothing,  and  blackberries  come  early  in 
April  when  the  oranges  are  gone ;  and  where,  far  from  the 
crowd  and  bustle  of  the  world,  with  Bill  Fuller  for  caterer, 
and  his  wife  Adeline  for  cook,  the  choicest  fare  is  to  be  en- 
joyed at  the  cheapest  rate.  Then  there  was  the  pleasure  of 
renewing  our  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Chapman,  and  botanizing 
with  him  over  some  of  the  ground  which  he  has  explored  so 
long  and  so  well,  of  gathering,  under  his  guidance,  the  stately 
Sarracenia  Drummondii  in  its  native  habitat,  and,  not  least, 
acquiring  from  him  fuller  information  respecting  the  localities 
where  Torreya  grows. 

The  return  voyage  up  the  river  was  not  less  enjoyable 
than  the  descent.  It  was  so  timed  that  the  bold  bluff  of  As- 
palaga,  where  the  tree  was  first  found,  was  reached  after  sun- 
rise. But  it  was  sad  to  see  that  the  Torreya  trees,  which 
overhung  the  river  here  in  former  days,  had  been  cut  away, 
perhaps  for  steamboat  fuel.  So  I  did  not  land  ;  but  leaving 
the  boat  a  few  miles  above,  at  the  upper  Chattahoochee  land- 
ing, while  it  made  the  run  to  Bainbridge  and  back,  I  had  a 
long  day  to  devote  to  Torreya.  Following  Dr.  Chapman's 
directions,  I  repaired  to  the  wooded  bluff  to  the  north  of  the 
road,  where  I  soon  found  an  abundance  of  the  trees,  of  vari- 
ous ages,  interspersed  among  other  growth.  The  largest  tree 
I  saw  grew  near  the  bottom  of  a  deep  ravine  ;  its  trunk  just 
above  the  base  measured  almost  four  feet  in  circumference, 
and  was  proportionally  tall.  But  it  was  dominated  by  the 
noblest  Magnolia  grand.'ifiora  I  ever  set  eyes  on,  with  trunk 
seven  and  a  half  feet  in  girth. 

After  long  search  one  tree  was  found  with  female  flowers, 
or  rather  with  forming  fruit,  from  which  a  few  specimens 


A   PILGRIMAGE    TO    TORREYA.  195 

were  gathered.  Seedlings  and  young  trees  are  not  uncom- 
mon, and  some  old  stumps  were  sprouting  from  the  base,  in 
the  manner  of  the  Californian  Redwood.  So  this  species 
may  be  expected  to  endure,  unless  these  bluffs  should  be 
wantonly  disforested  —  against  which  their  distance  from  the 
river  and  the  steepness  of  the  ground  offer  some  protection. 
But  any  species  of  very  restricted  range  may  be  said  to  hold 
its  existence  by  a  precarious  tenure.  The  known  range  of 
this  species  is  not  more  than  a  dozen  miles  in  length  along 
these  bluffs,  although  Dr.  Chapman  has  heard  of  its  growing 
further  south,  where  the  bluff  trends  away  from  the  river. 
At  least  the  Yew-tree  grows  there,  which  Mr.  Croom  found 
with  the  Torreya  near  Aspalaga,  and  I  heard  of  it  (identify- 
ing it  by  the  description)  as  growing  five  or  six  miles  away. 

Returning  to  the  boat  at  nightfall,  I  brought  with  me  thirty 
or  forty  seedling  Torreyas,  which,  being  too  far  advanced  to 
be  safely  sent  far  north  this  spring,  have  been  successfully 
consigned  to  the  excellent  Mr.  Berckman's  care,  at  Augusta, 
Georgia.  I  hope  that  one  or  more  of  them  may  in  due  time 
be  planted  upon  the  grave  of  Torrey. 

A  word  or  two  of  Mr.  Croom  and  his  sad  fate.  His  name 
merely  is  known  to  botanists  as  the  discoverer  of  Torrrya 
taxifolia  and  of  Croomia  pauciflora,  and  as  the  author  of  a 
monograph  of  Sarracenia,  in  which  the  handsomest  species, 
S.  Drummondii,  was  originally  described  and  figured.  He 
was  the  first,  after  Chapman  in  1836,  to  find  this  in  blossom, 
Drummond  having  seen  and  collected  the  leaves  only,  in  a 
winter  visit  to  Apalachicola.  Of  the  botanists  who  remember 
and  personally  knew  him,  only  Dr.  Chapman  and  myself 
survive.  Mr.  Croom,  originally,  I  believe,  of  Newbern, 
Lenoir  County,  North  Carolina,  had  a  plantation  at  Qui  new 
Florida,  and  another  at  Mariana,  opposite  Aspalaga  :  and  it 
was  in  passing  from  one  to  the  other  that  he  discovers!  the 
tree  of  which  I  have  been  discoursing,  as  well  as  the  herba- 
ceous plant  which  bears  his  name.  He  was  an  accomplished 
and  most  amiable  young  man,  full  of  enterprise  and  zeal  for 
botany,  and  much  was  expected  from  him.  But,  just  as  lie 
was  entering  upon  his  chosen  field,  and  had  made  prepara- 


196  ESS  A  YS. 

tions  for  a  thorough  exploration  of  Florida,  in  connection 
with  his  friend  Dr.  Chapman,  he  was  lost  at  sea,  with  his 
wife  and  all  his  children,  in  the  foundering  of  the  ill-fated 
"  Home,"  between  New  York  and  Charleston. 

I  have  been  told  that  two  seedling  Torreyas  which  Mr. 
Croom  planted  near  his  house  at  Quincy,  and  which  had 
become  stately  trees,  have  recently  been  demolished  by  the 
present  proprietor ;  also  that  a  tree  of  Mr.  Croom' s  plant- 
ing still  flourishes  in  the  grounds  of  the  state-house  at  Talla- 


NOTES   ON   THE   HISTORY  OF  HELIANTHUS  TUBE- 
ROSUS, THE  SO-CALLED  JERUSALEM  ARTICHOKE. 

Under  this  heading  the  botanical  editor  of  the  Journal * 
proposes  to  offer  a  few  explanatory  remarks,  introductory  to 
the  subjoined  letter  which  he  received  from  Mr.  Trumbull  in 
answer  to  a  recent  inquiry. 

Linnaeus,  in  the  "Species  Plantarum,"  gave  to  Helianthus 
tuberosus  the  "  habitat  in  Brasilia."  In  his  earlier  "  Hortus 
Cliffortianus  "  the  habitat  assigned  was  "  Canada."  M.  Al- 
phonse  De  Candolle,  in  his  "  Geographie  Botanique,"  ii.  824 
(1855),  refers  to  this  as  "decidedly  an  error,  at  least  as  to 
Canada  properly  so  called,"  assigns  good  reasons  for  the  opin- 
ion that  it  did  not  come  from  Brazil,  nor  from  Peru  (to  which 
the  name  under  which  it  appeared  in  cultivation  in  the  Far- 
nese  garden  seemed  to  refer),  but  in  all  probability  from 
Mexico  or  the  United  States.  He  adds  that  Humboldt  did 
not  meet  with  it  in  any  of  the  Spanish  colonies. 

About  this  time  I  received  from  my  friend  and  correspon- 
dent, the  late  Dr.  Short  of  Kentucky,  some  long  and  narrow 
tubers  of  Helianthus  doronicoides,  Lam.,  with  the  statement 
that  he  and  some  of  his  neighbors  found  them  good  food  for 
hogs,  and,  if  I  rightly  remember,  had  planted  them  for  that 
purpose.  They  were  planted  here  in  the  Botanic  Garden  ; 
after  two  or  three  years  it  was  found  that  some  of  the  tubers 
produced  were  thicker  and  shorter  ;  some  of  these  were  cooked 
along  with  Jerusalem  artichokes,  and  found  to  resemble  them 
in  flavor,  although  coarser.  Consequently,  in  the  second 
edition  of  my  "  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United 
States"  (1856),  it  is  stated  that  H  doronicoides  is  most 
probably   the  original  of  H.   tuberosus.     This  opinion  was 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xiii.  347.     (1877.) 


198  ESSAYS. 

strengthened  year  after  year  by  the  behavior  of  the  tubers, 
and  by  the  close  similarity  of  the  herbage  and  flowers  of  the 
two  plants,  as  they  grew  side  by  side ;  indeed,  as  the  two 
patches  were  allowed  to  run  together  in  a  waste  or  neglected 
place,  they  have  become  in  a  measure  confounded.  Wishing 
to  obtain  an  unmixed  stock,  I  applied  last  autumn  to  Profes- 
sor J.  M.  Coulter  of  Hanover,  Indiana,  and  received  from 
him  a  good  number  of  tubers  from  wild  plants  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, which  will  now  be  grown.  Some  of  these  were  slen- 
der, some  thicker  and  shorter,  and  a  few  were  to  all  appearance 
identical  with  Jerusalem  artichokes.  If  they  were  really  all 
from  one  stock,  as  there  is  reason  to  believe,  the  question  of 
the  origin  of  Helianthus  tuberosus  is  wellnigh  settled. 

We  were  now  interested  to  know  whether  our  Indians,  at 
least  those  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  where  H.  doronicoides 
belongs,  were  known  to  cultivate  these  tubers  or  to  use  them 
for  food.  Recently  a  note  in  the  "  American  Agriculturist  " 
called  attention  to  a  sentence  in  Dr.  Palfrey's  "  History  of 
New  England,"  i.  27,  stating  that  the  Indians  of  that  region 
raised,  among  other  articles  of  food,  "  a  species  of  Sunflower, 
whose  esculent  tuberous  root  resembled  the  artichoke  in  taste." 
The  venerable  historian  found  himself  at  the  moment  unable 
to  refer  me  to  the  sources  of  this  statement ;  but  as  it  was 
now  certain  that  some  record  of  the  kind  existed,  I  applied 
to  Mr.  Trumbull,  who  obligingly  and  promptly  supplied  the 
information  required,  and  placed  it  at  my  disposal  in  the  fol- 
lowing letter. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  March  26,  1877. 

My  dear  Professor  Gray:  I  cannot  refer  you  to  the 
authority  (totidem  verbis)  for  Dr.  Palfrey's  statement  that 
the  Indians  of  New  England  cultivated  "  a  species  of  Sun- 
flower, whose  esculent  tuberous  root  resembled  the  artichoke 
in  taste,"  but  there  can  be,  I  think,  little  doubt  of  the  fact. 
The  historical  evidence  that  "artischoki  sub  terra"  were  cul- 
tivated in  Canada  and  in  some  parts  of  New  England  before 
the  coming  of  Europeans  is  tolerably  clear.  The  only  ques- 
tion, if  there  be  any,  is  as  to  species ;  and  this  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  raised  for  more  than  half  a  century  after  the 


NOTES   ON   HEL1ANTHUS    TUBEROSUS.  199 

"  Jerusalem  artichoke  "  was  known  to  English  and  Continen- 
tal botanists. 

I  can  discover  no  authority  whatever,  before  1700,  for 
ascribing  to  the  Helianthus  tuberosum,  either  a  Brazilian  or 
a  Mexican  origin,  except  — and  the  exception  is  unimportant 
—  in  C.  Bauhin's  identification  (in  his  Pinax,  277  )  with  "  He- 
lianthemum  Indicum  tuberosum"  (77.  tuberosus,  L.),  of  a 
plant  that  he  had  described  in  his  earlier  -  Prodromus"  (  ed. 
1671,  p.  70)  as  "  Chrysanthemon  latifolium  Brasilianum" 
from  a  dried  specimen  sent  to  him  "  eo  nomine"  from  the 
garden  of  Contarini. 

The  first  trace  I  find  of  this  species,  in  Europe,  is  in  the 
2d  part  (cap.  6)  of  Fabio  Colonna's  "  Ecphrasis  minus  cogni- 
tarum  stirpium,"  published  at  Rome  in  1616.  He  described 
it  from  a  plant  growing  in  the  garden  of  Cardinal  rarnese. 
The  Sunflower  was  already  well  known  to  European  botanists, 
and  had  been  described  and  figured  by  Dodoens  (1563)  and 
Lobel  (1576)  as  Chrysanthemum  Peruvianum  and  Flos 
solis  Peruvianus.  With  reference  to  these  descriptions 
probably,  Colonna  gave  the  new  species  the  name  oi  Aster 
Peruanus,tuberosa  radice,  otherwise  Satisfies  Famesianus. 
(He  save  a  more  particular  description  of  the  plant  in  his 
annotations  to  Recchi's  Hernandez,  -Plant.  Mexic.  Hist 
1651,  pp.  878,  881,  as  Peruanus  Solis  fios  ex  Indus  tuber 

rosus.^) 

The  author  of  the  "  Descriptio  variorum  plantarum,  in 
Horto  Earnesiano,"  published  under  the  name  of  Tobias  Al- 
dinus  (Rome,  1625),  gave  some  account  of  the  mots,  which 
he  calls  "Tnbera  Indica,"  of  the  Solis  fios  tuberosus,  s  u 
Flos  Famesianus  FahU  Column*  (p.  91).  It  may  be  ob- 
served that  several  of  the  rarer  plants  in  the  Farnese  garden, 
at  this  time,  were  from  "Canada"  and  "Virginia.  The 
Passion  Flower  (admirably  figured  by  Aldinns  )  is  described 
under  its  Virginian  name,  "  Maracot  "  (the  -  Maracocks  of 
John  Smith  and  Strachey)  ;  and  a  Campanula  Americana* 
otherwise  named  "  Campanula  Virginiana,  sen  ex  I  irgimis 

insulis."  .   .     1COQn      ■% 

C.  Bauhin,  in  his  "Pinax"  (first  published  in  1623),  ed. 


200  ESSA  YS. 

1671,  p.  276,  notes  that  the  "  Helianihemum  Indicum  tube- 
rosum "  is  called  "  Chrysanthemum  e  Canada,  quibusdam. 
Canada  et  Artischoki  sub  terra,  aliis.     Gigantea,  Burgundis." 

P.  Laurenberg,  "  Apparat.  plant."  (Rostock,  1632),  names 
the  species  "  Adenes  Canadenses  or  Flos  Solis  glandulosus." 
Ant.  Yallot,  "Hortus  Regis,  Paris,*'  1665  (as  cited  by  Bauhin), 
gives  the  names  "  Canada  and  Artischoki  sub  terra,"  and 
"  Canadas,"  and  describes  also  "  Helenium  Canadense  altis- 
simum,  Vosacan  dictum"  which  Tournefort  distinguishes  as 
"Corona  Solis  rapunculi  radice"  (Inst.  Herb.  490),  and  which 
became  H.  strumosus,  L.  "Vosacan,"  by  the  way,  is  a  French 
fashion  of  writing  the  Algonkin  word  "  wassakone  "  or  "  was- 
sakwan,"  which  means  a  "  bright  yellow  flower."  The  mod- 
ern Chippeways  give  this  name  to  the  flowers  of  the  Pumpkin 
and  Squash. 

Under  whatever  name  the  Jerusalem  Artichoke  was  de- 
scribed, there  seems  to  have  been  a  general  agreement  among 
European  botanists  that  it  came  from  Canada.  F.  Schuyl, 
"Catal.  Horti  Lugcl.  Bat."  (Heidelberg,  1672),  varies  the 
specific  name  to  "  Chrysanthemum  Canadense  Arumosum." 
P.  Amman,  "  Charac.  Plant.  Nat."  (1676),  has  "  Helenium 
Canadense." 

It  was  introduced  to  England  about  1617.  In  that  year, 
Mr.  John  Goodyer,  of  Maple  Durham,  Hampshire,  "  received 
two  small  roots  thereof,  from  Mr.  Franquevill  of  London," 
which  were  planted,  and  enabled  him,  before  1621,  to  "  store 
Hampshire."  He  wrote  an  account  of  the  plant,  under  date 
of  October  17,  1621,  for  T.  Johnson,  —  who  printed  it  in  his 
edition  of  Gerard,  1636  (p.  753).  Before  this  the  species 
had  been  figured  and  described  by  J.  Parkinson,  in  "  Para- 
disus  Terrestris  "  (London,  1629),  as  "  Battatas  de  Canada," 
and  in  his  "  Theatre  of  Plants,"  1640  (p.  1383),  he  has  the 
figure  —  a  good  one — without  the  description,  under  the  names 
"  Battatas  de  Canada,  the  French  Battatas,  or  Hierusalem 
Artichoke."  Johnson,  in  Gerard  (p.  753),  refers  to  Parkin- 
son's description,  and  gives  the  name  as  "Flos  Solis  Pyrami- 
dalis,  Jerusalem  Artichoke."  It  already  grew  "  well  and 
plentifully  in  many  parts  of  England." 


NOTES   ON  HELIANTHUS    TUBEROSUS.  201 

The  notices  by  early  voyagers,  of  ground-nuts,  eaten  by  the 
Indians,  are  generally  so  brief  and  so  vague,  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  distinguish  the  three  or  four  species  mentioned  under 
that  name  or  its  equivalents.  The  Solatium  tuberosum 
Apios  tuberosa,  Aralia  trifolia,  and  a  Cyperus  (  articulatm 
were  all  "  ground-nuts,"  or  "  earth-nuts."  We  find,  however, 
in  a  few  instances,  unmistakable  mention  of  the  roots  already 
known  in  Europe  as  "  Canadian." 

Brereton,  in  his  account  of  Gosnold's  voyage  to  New  Eng- 
land in  1602,  notes  the  "great  store  of  ground-nuts"  found 
on  all  the  Elizabeth  Islands.     They  grow  "  forty  together  on 
a  string,  some  of  them  as  big  as  a  hen's  e^"  (Purchas,  iv. 
1651).     These,  doubtless,  were  the  roots  of  Apios  tuberosa. 
But  when  Champlain,  a  few  years  later  (1605-6),  was  in  the 
same  region,  he  observed  that  the  Almouchiquois  Indiaa*  near 
Point  Mallebarre  (Nauset  harbor,  probably,)  had  "  force.  d»s 
racines  qu'els  cultivent,  lesquelles  out  le   gout  d'a?ti<;haut 
(Voyages,   ed.   1632,   p.   84).     And  it  is  to  these  r%flt> 
dently,  that  Lescarbot  alludes,  "  Histoire  de  la  Nouv.  "Rfe/mW 
1612  (p.  840):  there   is,  he   says,  in  the   country  of  tic 
mouchiquois  (i.  e.,  New  England,  west  and  south  of  Main*'  >. 
a  certain   kind  of   roots  "  grosses  comme  naveaux,  tres  ^H| 
lentes  a  manger,  ayans  un  gout  retirant  aux  cardes,  mais  ptfas 
agreable,  lesquelles  plantees  multiplient  en  telle  facon   qmt 
e'est  merveille  ; "  and  he  thinks  these  must  be  the  "  AfrH 
dilles  "  described  by  Pliny. 

Sagard-Theodat  (Hist,  du  Canada,  1636,  p.  785)  mentions 
the  cultivation  of  the  Sunflower  by  the  Huron s  —  who  ex- 
tracted oil  from  its  seeds,  —  and  names  also  the  "  roots  that 
we  [the  French]  call  Canadiennes  or  Pommes  de  Canada, 
and  that  the  Huron s  call  l  Orasqueinta,'  which  are  not  very 
(assezpeu)  common  in  their  country.  They  eat  them  raw, 
as  well  as  cooked,  as  they  eat  another  sort  of  root  resembling 
parsnips  [Sium  lineare  ?],  which  they  call  Sondhratates,  and 
which  are  much  better ;  but  they  seldom  gave  us  these,  and 
only  when  they  received  some  present  from  us  or  when  we 
visited  them  in  their  cabins."  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  "  par 
tates,  fort  grosses  et  tres-excellentes,"  some  of  which  he  had 


202  ESS  A  YS. 

obtained  from  an  English  vessel  captured  by  the  French ;  but 
none  of  these  were  to  be  found  in  the  Huron  country,  nor 
could  the  Indians  tell  him  the  name  of  them  :  and  he  regretted 
that  he  had  not  brought  some  with  him,  for  planting,  since 
"  this  root,  being  cut  in  pieces  and  planted,  quickly  grows 
and  multiplies,  it  is  said,  like  the  pommes  de  Canada  "  (pp. 
781,  782).  It  is  plain  that  the  Huron  roots  first  mentioned 
were,  or  that  Sagard  believed  them  to  be,  "  Jerusalem  Arti- 
chokes," —  already  known  as  "  Canadian." 

I  find  no  mention  of  the  artichoke  in  Virginia  or  the 
southern  colonies  before  it  was  cultivated  by  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans. The  author  of  "  A  Perfect  Description  of  Virginia," 
printed  in  1649,  says  that  the  English  planters  have  (inter 
alia)  "  roots  of  several  kindes,  Potatoes,  Sparagus,  Carrets, 
.  .  .  and  Hartichokes."  Beverly  (Hist,  of  Virginia,  1722, 
p.  254)  mentions  "  Batatas  Canadensis,  or  Jerusalem  Arti- 
choke^ •»  planted  by  some  of  the  English,  for  brewing  beer. 
i  <  t.  the  name  of  one  of  the  esculent  roots  mentioned  by  Ha- 
ridti^BKef  and  True  Report,  etc.,  1585)  ought  to  belong  to 
3o'Hie' -'gpecies  of  Sun  Flower  —  and  if  to  any,  to  H.  tube- 
fit*m$  Hariot  names  three  tuberous  roots  found  in  Virginia : 
"<  )penauk,  a  kind  of  roots  of  round  form,  some  of  the  bignes 
<oftffvalnuts,  some  far  greater,  which  are  found  in  moist  and 
^f^trish  grounds  growing  many  together  one  by  another  in 
Hjfepes,  or  as  though  they  were  fastened  with  a  string.  Being 
1  boiled  or  sodden,  they  are  very  good  meate."  [C.  Bauhin 
(Prodromus,  89)  identifies  these  with  Solanum  tuberosum 
esculentum,  —  and  has  been  followed  by  later  writers.  The 
description  seems  to  me  to  indicate  Apios  tuberosa.~]  "  Kais- 
hucpenauk,  a  white  kind  of  roots  about  the  bignes  of  hen  egs 
and  nere  of  that  forme  :  their  taste  was  not  so  good  to  our 
seeming  as  of  the  other,  and  therefore  their  place  and  man- 
ner of  growing  not  so  much  cared  for  by  vs :  the  inhabitants 
notwithstanding  vsed  to  boile  and  eat  many."  These  may 
be  "  Virginia  potatoes,"  but  their  name,  if  Hariot  recorded  it 
correctly,  means  "  Sun-tubers."  The  etymology  is  perfectly 
clear.  The  other  roots  described  by  Hariot,  "  Okeepenauk 
are  also  of  round  shape,  found  in  dry  grounds :  some  are  of 


NOTES   ON  HEL1ANTHUS    TUBEROSUS.  203 

the  bignes  of  a  man's  head,"  etc.  These  must  be  the  "  Tubera 
terras  maxima,"  of  Clayton,  "vulgo  Tuckahoo,"  which  (iio- 
novius  (Fl.  Virgin.  205)  refers  to  Lycoperdon  solidum,  L., 
and  for  which  Rafinesque  (Med.  Fl.  ii.  270)  proposed  a  new 
genus  Tucahus.  Kalm  describes  them  (Travels,  i.  225)  as 
"  Truffles."  Fries  (El.  Fung.  ii.  39)  assigns  them  to  his 
Pachyma  cocos. 

Writing  in  haste  and  with  frequent  interruptions,  it  has 
been  possible  to  do  little  more  than  copy,  with  »nt  condensing 
or  arranging,  such  notes  as  I  had  before  me.  V  have  ex- 
tended to  such  a  length  that  I  must  not  add  even  an  apology 
for  the  superfluous  matter.  Yours  truly, 

J.  H.  Tkumijull. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whence  came  the  Frendfl 
name  of  these  Helianthus  tubers,  "  Topinambour,"  it  being 
the  only  thing  in  the  case  which,  as  Mr.  Trumbull  remarks, 
"looks  to  a  Brazilian  origin,  as  it  seems  to  be  derived  (and 
so  Littre  gives  it)  from  the  Topinamboux  Indians  of  Brazil." 
The  English  name,  "  Jerusalem  Artichoke,"  conies,  as  is  well 
known,  from  the  Italian  "  Girasola,"  i.  e.  Sunflower. 

As  to  the  annual  Sunflower,  or  Helianthus  (in nuns,  said  by 
Linnaeus  to  come  from  Peru  and  Mexico,  I  have  for  some 
years  been  convinced  that  its  original  is  the  //.  henticularis 
of  Douglas,  which  again  is  probably  only  a  larger  form  of  //. 
petiolaris  of  Nuttall,  natives  of  the  western  part  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  of  the  plains  to  and  beyond  the  B<-  iky 
Mountains.  It  is  an  interesting  confirmation  of  this  opinion 
that  Sagard  (as  mentioned  in  the  above  communication)  and 
Champlain  found  this  Sunflower  in  cultivation  by  the  Huron 
Indians,  for  the  sake  of  the  oil  of  its  seeds,  which  they  used 
for  hair-oil. 


FOREST   GEOGRAPHY  AND   ARCHAEOLOGY.1 

It  is  the  forests  of  the  Northern  temperate  zone  which  we 
are  to  traverse.  After  taking  some  note  of  them  in  their 
present  condition  and  relations,  we  may  inquire  into  their 
pedigree ;  and,  from  a  consideration  of  what  and  where  the 
component  trees  have  been  in  days  of  old,  derive  some  proba- 
ble explanation  of  peculiarities  which  otherwise  seem  inexpli- 
cable and  strange. 

In  speaking  of  our  forests  in  their  present  condition,  I 
mean  not  exactly  as  they  are  to-day,  but  as  they  were  before 
civilized  man  had  materially  interfered  with  them.  In  the 
district  we  inhabit  such  interference  is  so  recent  that  we  have 
little  difficulty  in  conceiving  the  conditions  which  here  pre- 
vailed, a  few  generations  ago,  when  the  "  forest  primeval "  — 
described  in  the  first  lines  of  a  familiar  poem  —  covered 
essentially  the  whole  country,  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
and  Canada  to  Florida  and  Texas,  from  the  Atlantic  to  be- 
yond the  Mississippi.  This,  our  Atlantic  forest,  is  one  of  the 
largest  and  almost  the  richest  of  the  temperate  forests  of  the 
world.  That  is,  it  comprises  a  greater  diversity  of  species 
than  any  other,  except  one. 

In  crossing  the  country  from  the  Atlantic  westward,  w- 
leave  this  forest  behind  us  when  we  pass  the  western  borders 
of  those  organized  States  which  lie  along  the  right  bank  of 
the  Mississippi.  We  exchange  it  for  prairies  and  open  plains, 
wooded  only  along  the  watercourses,  —  plains  which'  grow 
more  and  more  bare  and  less  green  as  we  proceed  westward, 
with  only  some  scattering  Cottonwoods  (i.  e.  Poplars)_on  the 
immediate  banks  of  the  traversing  rivers,  which  are  them- 
selves far  between. 

1  A  lecture  delivered  before  the  Harvard  University  Natural  History 
Society,  April  18,  1878.  (American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser., 
xvi.  85,  183.) 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHEOLOGY.        205 

In  the  Rocky  Mountains  we  come  again  to  forest,  but  only 
in  narrow  lines  or  patches  ;  and  if  you  travel  by  the  Pacific 
Railroad  you  hardly  come  to  any  :  the  eastern  and  the  in- 
terior-desert plains  meet  along  the  comparatively  low  level  of 
the  divide  which  here  is  so  opportune  for  the  railway  :  but 
both  north  and  south  of  this  line  the  mountains  themselves 
are  fairly  wooded.  Beyond,  through  all  the  wide  interior 
basin,  and  also  north  and  south  of  it,  the  numerous  mountain 
chains  seem  to  be  as  bare  as  the  alkaline  plains  they  traverse, 
mostly  north  and  south;  and  the  plains  bear  nothing  taller 
than  sage-brush.  But  those  who  reach  and  climb  these  moun- 
tains find  that  their  ravines  and  higher  recesses  nourish  no 
small  amount  of  timber,  though  the  trees  themselves  are 
mostly  small  and  always  low. 

When  the  western  rim  of  this  great  basin  is  reached  there 
is  an  abrupt  change  of  scene.  This  rim  is  formed  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  Even  its  eastern  slopes  are  forest-clad  in 
great  measure,  while  the  western  bear  in  some  respects  the 
noblest  and  most  remarkable  forest  of  the  world,  —  remark 
able  even  for  the  number  of  species  of  evergreen  trees  oc 
pying  a  comparatively  narrow  area,  but  especially  for  th 
wonderful  development  in  size  and  altitude.  Whatever  ma; 
be  claimed  for  individual  Eucalyptus-trees  \v  oei  tain  sheltered 
ravines  of  the  southern  part  of  Australia,  it  is  probaWe  that 
thgre  is  no  forest  to  be  compared  for  grandeui  with  that  which 
ketches,  essentially  unbroken.  —  though  often  narrowed,  and 
KH:whare  very  wide,  —  trom  the  southern  part  of  the  Sierra 
fhes'da  in  lat.  3G°  to  Puget  Sound  beyond  lat,  49",  and  not  a 
ftfc.  ytfarl  I  n  t . 

-  egeending  into  the  long  valley  of  California,  the  forest 
changes,  dwindles,  and  mainly  disappears.  In  the  Pacific 
tRMUr>.  »*anges  it  resumes  its  sway,  with  altered  features,  some 
bf  ttetn  not  less  magnificent  and  of  greater  beauty.  The 
Redvoods  of  the  coast,  for  instance,  are  little  less  gigantic 
ttuir  the  Big  Trees  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  far  handsomer, 
Bind1  a  thousand  times  more  numerous.  And  several  species, 
whifta  are  merely  or  mainly  shrubs  in  the  drier  Sierra,  be- 
«"  lordly  trees  in  the  moister  air  of  the  northerly  coast 


me 
irk- 

r 


ft. 


206  ESS  A  YS. 

ranges.  Through  most  of  California  these  two  Pacific  forests 
are  separate  ;  in  the  northern  part  of  that  State  they  join, 
and  form  one  rich  woodland  belt,  skirting  the  Pacific,  backed 
by  the  Cascade  Mountains,  and  extending  through  British 
Columbia  into  our  Alaskan  territory. 

So  we  have  two  forest  regions  in  North  America,  —  an  At- 
lantic and  a  Pacific.  They  may  take  these  names,  for  they 
are  dependent  upon  the  oceans  which  they  respectively  bor- 
der. Also  we  have  an  intermediate  isolated  region  or  isolated 
lines  of  forest,  flanked  on  both  sides  by  bare  and  arid  plains, 
—  plains  which  on  the  eastern  side  may  partly  be  called 
prairies,  on  the  western,  deserts. 

This  mid-region  mountain  forest  is  intersected  by  a  trans- 
verse belt  of  arid  and  alkaline  plateau,  or  eastward  of  grassy 
plain  —  a  hundred  miles  wide  from  north  to  south,  —  through 
which  passes  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  This  divides  the 
Pocky  Mountain  forest  into  a  southern  and  a  northern  por- 
tion. The  southern  is  completely  isolated.  The  northern,  in 
a  cooler  and  less  arid  region,  is  larger,  broader,  more  dif- 
fused. Trending  westward,  on  and  beyond  the  northern 
jtaundary  of  the  United  States,  it  approaches,  and  here  and 
$jfc#L;e  unites  with,  the  Pacific  forest.  Eastward,  in  northern 
British  territory,  it  makes  a  narrow  junction  with  northwest- 
ward prolongations  of  the  broad  Atlantic  forest. 

So  much  for  these  forests  as  a  whole,  their  position,  their 
limits.  Before  we  glance  at  their  distinguishing  features  afl4 
component  trees,  I  should  here  answer  the  question v.****" 
they  occupy  the  positions  they  do  ;  —  why  so  curt;: 
separated  at  the  south,  so  much  more  diffused  at  thejn/'idfc 
but  still  so  strongly  divided  into  eastern  and  western.  ,^et  1 
must  not  consume  time  with  the  rudiments  of  physical  /eogr 
raphy  and  meteorology.  It  goes  without  saving  thsjb  tie^s 
are  nourished  by  moisture.  They  starve  with  dryness'  and 
they  starve  with  cold.  A  tree  is  a  sensitive  thing.  'W'hh.  -it's 
great  spread  of  foliage,  its  vast  amount  of  surface  \\  hi  :h  it 
cannot  diminish  or  change,  except  by  losing  that  whjert.>y  it 
lives,  it  is  completely  and  helplessly  exposed  to  everj  atmos- 
pheric change  ;  or  at  least  its  resources  for  adaptation  a«re 


I 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       207 

very  limited  ;  and  it  cannot  flee  for  shelter.  But  trees  are 
social,  and  their  gregarious  habits  give  a  certain  mutual  sup- 
port. A  tree  by  itself  is  doomed,  where  a  forest,  ouee  estab- 
lished, is  comparatively  secure. 

Trees  vary  as  widely  as  do  other  plants  in  their  constitu- 
tion ;  but  none  can  withstand  a  certain  amount  of  cold  and 
other  exposure,  nor  make  head  against  a  certain  shortness  of 
summer.  Our  high  northern  regions  are  therefore  treeless ; 
and  so  are  the  summits  of  high  mountains  in  lower  Latitudes. 
As  we  ascend  them  we  walk  at  first  under  Spruces  and  Fir- 
trees  or  Birches  ;  at  6000  feet  on  the  White  Mountains  of 
New  Hampshire,  at  11,000  or  12,000  feet  on  the  Colorado 
Rocky  Mountains,  we  walk  through  or  upon  them  ;  sometimes 
upon  dwarfed  and  depressed  individuals  of  the  same  species 
that  made  the  canopy  below.  These  depressed  trees  retain 
their  hold  on  life  only  in  virtue  of  being  covered  all  winter 
by  snow.  At  still  higher  altitudes  the  species  are  wholly  dif- 
ferent ;  and  for  the  most  part  these  humble  alpine  plants  of 
our  temperate  zone  —  which  we  cannot  call  trees,  because 
they  are  only  a  foot  or  two  or  a  span  or  two  high  —  are  the 
same  as  those  of  the  arctic  zone,  of  northern  Labrador,  and  of 
Greenland.  The  arctic  and  the  alpine  regions  are  equally 
unwooded  from  cold. 

As  the  opposite  extreme,  under  opposite  conditions,  look  to 
equatorial  America,  on  the  Atlantic  side,  for  the  wildest  and 
most  luxuriant  forest-tract  in  the  world,  where  winter  is  un- 
known, and  a  shower  of  rain  falls  almost  every  afternoon. 
The  size  of  the  Amazon  and  Orinoco  —  brimming  throughout 
the  year  —  testifies  to  the  abundance  of  rain  and  its  equable 
distribution. 

The  other  side  of  the  Andes,  mostly  farther  south,  shows 
the  absolute  contrast,  in  the  want  of  rain,  and  absence  of  for- 
est ;  happily  it  is  a  narrow  tract.  The  same  is  true  of  great 
tracts  either  side  of  the  equatorial  regions,  the  only  district 
where  great  deserts  reach  the  ocean. 

It  is  also  true  of  ffreat  continental  interiors  out  of  the 
equatorial  belt,  except  where  cloud-compelling  mountain- 
chains  coerce  a  certain  deposition  of  moistiywrfrom  air  which 


208  ESSA  VS.  *h* 

could  give  none  to  the  heated  plains  below.  So  the  broad  in- 
terior of  our  country  is  forestless  from  dryness  in  our  latitude, 
as  the  high  northern  zone  is  forestless  from  cold. 

Regions  with  distributed  rain  are  naturally  forest-clad. 
Regions  with  scanty  rain,  and  at  one  season,  are  forestless  or 
sparsely  wooded,  except  they  have  some  favoring  compensa- 
tions.    Rainless  regions  are  desert. 

The  Atlantic  United  States  in  the  zone  of  variable  weather 
and  distributed  rains,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as  a  caldron 
for  brewing  rain,  and  no  continental  expanse  between  that 
great  caldron  and  the  Pacific,  crossed  by  a  prevalent  south- 
west wind  in  summer,  is  greatly  favored  for  summer  as  well 
as  winter  rain. 

And  so  this  forest  region  of  ours,  with  an  annual  rainfall 
of  fifty  inches  on  the  lower  Mississippi,  fifty-two  inches  in  all 
the  country  east  of  it  bordering  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  forty- 
five  to  forty-one  in  all  the  proper  Atlantic  district  from  east 
Florida  to  Maine  and  the  whole  region  drained  by  the  Ohio, 
—  diminished  only  to  thirty-four  inches  on  the  whole  upper 
Mississippi  and  Great  Lake  region,  —  with  this  amount  of 
rain,  fairly  distributed  over  the  year,  and  the  greater  part  not 
in  the  winter,  our  forest  is  well  accounted  for. 

The  narrow  district  occupied  by  the  Pacific  forest  has  a 
much  more  unequal  rainfall,  —  more  unequal  in  its  different 
parts,  most  unequal  in  the  different  seasons  of  the  year,  very 
different  in  the  same  place  in  different  years. 

From  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  the 
amount  of  rain  decreases  moderately  and  rather  regularly 
from  south  to  north  ;  but,  as  less  is  needed  in  a  cold  climate, 
there  is  enough  to  nourish  forest  throughout.  On  the  Pacific 
coast,  from  the  Gulf  of  California  to  Puget  Sound,  the  south- 
erly third  has  almost  no  rain  at  all ;  the  middle  portion  has 
less  than  our  Atlantic  least ;  the  northern  third  has  about  our 
Atlantic  average. 

Then,  New  England  has  about  the  same  amount  of  rainfall 
in  winter  and  in  summer ;  Florida  and  Alabama  about  one 
half  more  in  the  three  summer  than  in  the  three  winter 
months,  —  a  fai»ly  equable  distribution.     But  on  the  Pacific 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       209 

coast  there  is  no  summer  rain  at  all,  except  in  the  northern 
portion,  and  there  little.  And  the  winter  rain,  of  forty-four 
inches  on  the  northern  border,  diminishes  to  less  than  one 
hatf  before  reaching-  the  Bay  of  San  -I&anciseo ;  dwindles  to 
twelve,  ten,  and  eight  inches  on  tin-  *thei-i  roust,  and  to 
four  inches  before  we  reach  the  I  into  '  Stotes  boundary  lie- 
low  San  Diego.  m 

Taking  the  whole  year  together,  and   confining  < un- 
to the  coast,  the  average  rainfall  for  the  I'uget 
Sound  to   the  border  of  California,  is  from 
the  north    to    seventy   at   the    south,    /.    /■.,    seven*?    on      ii. 
northern  edge  of  California ;  thence  it  diminishes    rapid 
thirty-six,  twenty  (about  San  Francisco),  twelve,  and  ai 
Diego  to  eight  inches. 

The  two  rainiest  regions  of  the  United  States  are  th< 
cific  coast  north  of  latitude  forty-five,  and  the  northen* 
coast  and  borders  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Jnit  when  one  is 
rainy  the  other  is  comparatively  rainless.  For  while  this  Pa- 
cific rainy  region  has  only  from  twelve  to  two  inches  of  its 
rain  in  the  summer  months,  Florida,  out  of  its  forty  to  sixtv, 
has  twenty  to  twenty-six  in  summer,  and  only  six  to  ten  in  the 
winter  months. 

A«*ain,  the  diminution  of  rainfall,  as  we  proceed  inland 
from  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  shores,  is  gradual  ;  the  expanse 
that  is  or  was  forest-clad  is  very  broad,  and  we  wonder  only 
that  it  did  not  extend  farther  west  than  it  does. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  continent,  at  the  north,  the  district 
so  favored  with  winter  rain  is  but  a  narrow  strip,  between  the 
ocean  and  the  Cascade  Mountains.  East  of  the  latter,  the 
amount  abruptly  declines,  —  for  the  year,  from  eighty  inches 
to  sixteen  ;  for  the  winter  months,  from  forty-four  and  forty 
to  eight  and  four  inches;  for  the  summer  months,  from 
twelve  and  four  to  two  and  one. 

So  we  can  understand  why  the  Cascade  Mountains  abruptly 
separate  dense  and  tall  forest  on  the  west  from  treelessness 
on  the  east.  We  may  conjecture,  also,  why  this  north  Pa- 
cific forest  is  so  magnificent  in  its  development. 

Equally,  in  the  rapid  decrease  of  rainfall  southward,  in   i' 


I 


210  ESSAYS. 

corresponding  restriction  to  one  season,  in  the  continuation  of 
the  Cascade  Mountains  as  the  Sierra  Nevada,  cutting  off  ac- 
cess of  rain  to  the  interior,  in  the  unbroken  stretch  of  coast 
ranges  near  the  sea,  and  the  consequent  small  and  precarious 
rainfall  in  the  gre^t  interior  valley  of  California,  we  see 
reasons  why  the  Galifornian  forest  is  mainly  attenuated  south- 
ward into  two  lines,  —  into  two  files  of  a  narrow  but  lordly 
profession,  advancing  southward  along  the  coast  ranges,  and 
along  the  western  flank  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  leaving  the 
lonM^Hgr  between  comparatively  bare  of  trees. 

By  &*e  limited  and  precarious  rainfall  of  California  we 
may  a  /count  for  the  limitations  of  its  forest.  But  how  shall 
we  account  for  the  fact  that  this  district  of  comparatively  little 
rain  produce:-  the  largest  trees  in  the  world  —  not  only  pro- 
-dtfcee,  alone  of  all  the  world,  those  two  peculiar  Big  Trees 
whteh  excite  our  special  wonder,  — their  extraordinary  growth 
might  be  some  idiosyncrasy  of  a  race,  —  but  also  produces 
Pines  and  Fir-trees  whose  brethren  we  know,  and  whose 
capabilities  we  can  estimate,  upon  a  scale  only  less  gigantic? 
Evidently  there  is  something  here  wonderfully  favorable  to 
l|lhe  development  of  trees,  especially  of  coniferous  trees  ;  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  determine  what  it  can  be. 

Nor,  indeed,  does  the  rainfall  of  the  coast  of  Oregon, 
great  as  it  is,  fully  account  for  the  extraordinary  development 
of  its  forest ;  for  the  rain  is  nearly  all  in  winter,  very  little 
in  summer.  Yet  here  is  more  timber  to  the  acre  than  in 
any  other  part  of  North  America,  or  perhaps  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  The  trees  are  never  so  enormous  in  girth 
as  some  of  the  Californian,  but  are  of  equal  height,  at  least 
on  the  average,  three  hundred  feet  being  common,  and  they 
stand  almost  within  arms'  length  of  each  other. 

The  explanation  of  all  this  may  mainly  be  found  in  the 
great  climatic  differences  between  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlan- 
tic sides  of  the  continent ;  and  the  explanation  of  these  differ- 
ences is  found  in  the  difference  in  the  winds  and  the  great 
ocean  currents. 

The  winds  are  from  the  ocean  to  the  land  all  the  year 
m,ound,  from  northwesterly  in  summer,  southwesterly  in  win- 
-:       - 


GEOGRAPHY  AXD   A  IK  'ILEOLOGY. 


11 


t  the  great  Pacific  Gulf-stream  sweeps  toward  and 
[Sjj  coast,  instead  of  bearing  away  from  it,  as  on  our 
ic  .side. 

Winters  are  mild  and  short,  and  are  to  a  great  extent  a 

of  growth,  instead  of  suspension  of  growth  as  with  us. 

there  is  a  far  longer  season    available   to  tree  vegetation 

with  us,  during  all  of  which  trees  may  either  grow  or 

cumulate  the  materials    for   growth.      On    cur  Bide  of  the 

continent  and  in  this  latitude,  trees  use  the  whole  autumn   in 

tting  ready  for  a  six-months  winter,  which   is    completely 

t  time. 

Finally,  as  concerns  the  west  coast,  the  lack  of  summer  rain 
de  up  by  the  moisture-laden  ocean  winds,  which  regularly 
7  summer  afternoon  wrap  the  coast-ranges  of  mountains, 
•ich  these  forests  affect,  with  mist  and  fog.  The  Redwood, 
^  of  the  two  California  Big  Trees, — the  handsomest  and 
Ihe  most  abundant  and  useful,  —  is  restricted  to  these 
t  ranges,  bathed  with  soft  showers  fresh  from  the  ocean 
Winter,  and  with  fogs  and  moist  ocean  air  all  summer.  It 
owhere  found  beyond  the  reach  of  these  fogs.  South  of 
Jerey,  where  this  summer  condensation  lessens,  and  winter 
become  precarious,  the  Redwoods  disappear,  and  the  gen- 
forest  becomes  restricted  to  favorable  stations  <»n  moun- 
sides  and  summits.  .  .  .  The  whole  coast  is  bordered  by 
a  line  of  mountains,  which  condense  the  moisture  of  th< 
^^Hts  upon  their  cool  slopes  and  summits.  These  winds, 
Continuing  eastward,  descend  dr}>  into  the  valleys,  and  warni- 
^^Hp  they  descend,  take  up  moisture  instead  of  dropping 
j^^HpThese  valleys,  when  broad,  are  sparsely  wooded  or  wo<»d- 
^K(T])[  at  the  north,  where  summer  rain  is  not  very  rare. 
IkJknd  stretches  the  Sierra  Nevada,  all  rainless  in  summer, 
B^S^Bb[^Lhail-storms  and  snowfalls  on  its  higher  crests  and 

51^8^ flanks  arc  forest-clad;   and,  between  the  levels 
i 

.  they  hear  an    ample   growth  of  the  lar- 

q^KKpVcP-      In  favored  sp»ts  of  this  forest, 

and  only  ther.  found    ''"'-'  moves  of  the  giant  Sequoia, 

near  kin  of  the  Iicdwoi  '  v.-ast  ranges,  whose  trunks  are 

from  fifty  to  ninel  ^H^arence,  and  whose  height   is 


nere 


212  ESSAYS.  \ 

from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  and  twenty-fivd  An;  A     A.  j 
in   reaching  these  wondrous  trees  you  ride  thnmewKSn 
Sugar  Pines.  Yellow  Pines,  Spruces,  and  Firs,  of  S"<-'V^^^H 
cence  in  girth  and  height,  that  the  Big  Trees,  when  39 
—  astonishing  as  they  are  —  seem   not   out   of   keeping^^M 
their  surroundings. 

I  cannot  pretend  to  account  for  the  extreme  magnificence 'ft 
this  Sierra  forest.  Its  rainfall  is  in  winter,  and  of  unknowii 
but  large  amount.  Doubtless  most  of  it  is  in  snow,  of  whicti 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  fall  in  some  winters,  and  —  different  from 
the  coast  and  from  Oregon,  where  it  falls  as  rain,  and  atfJS 
temperature  which  does  not  suspend  vegetable  action  —  here 
the  winter  must  be  complete  cessation.  But  with  such  gi| 
snowfall  the  supply  of  moisture  to  the  soil  should  be  al 
dant  and  lasting. 

Then  the  Sierra  —  much  loftier  than  the  coast  ranges,  MP 
ing  from  7000  or  8000  to  11,000  and  14,000  feet  —  is  refresIHf 
in  summer  by  the  winds  from  the  Pacific,  from  which  it  tafifejj 
the  last  drops  of  available  moisture  ;  and  mountains  of  stlfefc 
altitude,  to  which  moisture  from  whatever  source  or  direeftdb 
must  necessarily  be  attracted,  are  always  expected  to  supj^Bjl 
forests,  — at  least  when  not  cut  off  from  sea-winds  by  interpj^BI 
chains  of  equal  altitude.  Trees  such  mountains  will  have.  xHr, 
only  and  the  real  wonder  is,  that  the  Sierra  Nevada  should  fl&it 
such  immense  trees  !  u* 

Moreover,  we  shall  see  that  this  forest  is  rich  and  stfj 
only  in  one  line ;  that,  beyond  one  favorite  tribe,  it  is  mfl 
enough.     Such  for  situation,  and  extent,  and  surrounding  eon 
ditions,  are  the  two  forests  —  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  —  wtfitlj 
are  to  be  compared. 

In  order  to  come  to  this  comparison.  I  must  refrain  fror 
account  of  the  intervening  forest  of  the  Rocky  Moutfkife 
only  saying  that  it  is  comparatively  poor  in  th* 
trees  and  the  number  of  species:  thirt  few  '  a£  ff<<  ta 
peculiar,  and  those   mostly  in  the  sWJhern  par^and  of   the 
Mexican  plateau  type  ;  that  they  are  common  to  the  momitfefiP 
chains  which  lie  between,  stretched  north  and  south  en  ec;//don, 
all  through  that  arid  or  desert  region  of  Utah  and  Nevada,  of 


■ 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       213 

which  the  larger  part  belongs  to  the  great  basin  between  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Nevada ;  that  most  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  trees  are  identical  in  species  with  those  of  the 
Pacific  forest,  except  far  north,  where  a  few  of  our  eastern 
ones  are  intermingled.  I  may  add  that  the  Rocky  Mountains 
proper  get  from  twelve  to  twenty  inches  of  rain  in  the  year, 
mostly  in  winter  snow,  some  in  summer  showers. 

But  the  interior  mountains  get  little,  and  the  plains  or  val- 
leys between  them  less;  the  Sierra  arresting  nearly  all  the 
moisture  coining  from  the  Pacific,  the  Rocky  Mountains  all 
coming  from  the  Atlantic  side. 

Forests  being  my  subject,  I  must  not  tarry  on  the  woodless 
plain  —  on  an  average  500  miles  wide  —  which  lies  between 
*$  what  forest  there  is  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  western 
border  of  our  eastern  wooded  region.  Why  this  great  sloping 
plain  should  be  woodless  —  except  where  some  Cotton  woods 
and  their  like  mark  the  course  of  the  traversing  rivers  —  is, 
on  the  whole,  evident  enough.  Great  interior  plains  in  tem- 
perate latitudes  are  always  woodless,  even  when  not  very  arid. 
This  of  ours  is  not  arid  to  the  degree  that  the  corresponding 
regions  west  of  the  Rocky  Mouu tains  are.  The  moisture  from 
the  Pacific  which  those  could  otherwise  share  is  —  as  we  have 
seen  —  arrested  on  or  near  the  western  border  by  the  coast- 
ranges  and  again  by  the  Sierra  Nevada  ;  and  so  the  interior 
(except  for  the  mountains)  is  all  but  desert. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  the  moisture  supplied 
by  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  meets  no  such  obstruc- 
tion. So  the  diminution  of  rainfall  is  gradual  instead  of 
abrupt.  But  this  moisture  is  spread  over  a  vast  surface,  and  it 
jis  naturally  bestowed,  first  and  most  on  the  seaboard  district, 
anof"  least  on  the  remote  interior.  From  the  lower  Mississippi 
eastward  and  northward,  including  the  Ohio  River  basin,  and 
so  to  the  coast,  and  up  to  Nova  Scotia,  there  is  an  average 
of  forty-seven  inches  of  rain  in  the  year.  This  diminishes 
rather  steadily  westward,  •  especially  northwestward,  and  the 
western  border  of  the  ultra-Mississippian  plain  gets  less  than 
twenty  inches. 

Indeed,  from  the  great  prevalence  of  westerly  and  southerly 


214  ESS  A  YS. 

winds,  what  precipitation  of  moisture  there  is  on  our  western 
plains  is  not  from  Atlantic  sources,  nor  much  from  the  Gulf. 
The  rain-chart  plainly  shows  that  the  water  raised  from  the 
heated  Gulf  is  mainly  carried  northward  and  eastward.  It  is 
this  which  has  given  us  the  Atlantic  forest-region  ;  and  it  is  the 
limitation  of  this  which  bounds  that  forest  at  the  west.  The 
line  on  the  rain-chart  indicating  twenty-four  inches  of  annual 
rain  is  not  far  from  the  line  of  the  western  limit  of  trees,  ex- 
cept far  north,  beyond  the  Great  Lakes,  where,  in  the  coolness 
of  high  latitudes,  as  in  the  coolness  of  mountains,  a  less 
amount  of  rainfall  suffices  for  forest-growth. 

We  see,  then,  why  our  great  plains  grow  bare  as  we  proceed 
from  the  Mississippi  westward ;  though  we  wonder  why  this 
should  take  place  so  soon  and  so  abruptly  as  it  does.  But,  as 
already  stated,  the  general  course  of  the  wind-bearing  rains 
from  the  Gulf  and  beyond  is  such  as  to  water  well  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  all  eastward,  but  not  the  district  west 
of  it. 

It  does  not  altogether  follow  that,  because  rain  or  its  equi- 
valent is  needed  for  forest,  therefore  wherever  there  is  rain 
enough,  forest  must  needs  cover  the  ground.  At  least  there 
are  some  curious  exceptions  to  such  a  general  rule,  —  excep- 
tions both  ways.  In  the  Sierra  Nevada  we  are  confronted  with 
a  stately  forest  along  with  a  scanty  rainfall,  with  rain  only  in 
the  three  winter  months.  All  summer  long,  under  those  lofty 
trees,  if  you  stir  up  the  soil  you  may  be  choked  with  dust. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  prairies  of  Iowa  and  Illinois,  which 
form  deep  bays  or  great  islands  in  our  own  forest  region,  are 
spread  under  skies  which  drop  more  rain  than  probably  ever 
falls  on  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  give  it  at  all  sea- 
sons. Under  the  lesser  and  brief  rains  we  have  the  loftiest 
trees  we  know;  under  the  more  copious  and  well-dispersed 
rain,  we  have  prairies,  without  forest  at  all. 

There  is  little  more  to  say  about  the  first  part  of  this  para- 
dox; and  I  have  not  much  to  say  about  the  other.  The  cause 
or  origin  of  our  prairies  —  of  the  unwooded  districts  this  side 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  —  has  been  much  discussed, 
and  a  whole  hour  would  be  needed  to  give  a  fair  account  of 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       215 

the  different  views  taken  upon  this  knotty  question.  The  only 
settled  thing  about  it  is,  that  the  prairies  are  not  directly  due 
to  a  deficiency  of  rain.  That  the  rain-charts  settle,  as  Pro- 
fessor Whitney  well  insists. 

The  prairies  which  indent  or  are  inclosed  in  our  Atlantic 
forest  region,  and  the  plains  beyond  this  region,  arc  different 
things.  But  as  the  one  borders  —  and  in  Iowa  and  Nebraska 
passes  into  —  the  other,  it  may  be  supposed  that  common 
causes  have  influenced  both  together,  perhaps  more  than  Pro- 
fessor Whitney  allows. 

He  thinks  that  the  extreme  fineness  and  depth  of  the  usual 
prairie  soil  will  account  for  the  absence  of  trees ;  and  Mr. 
Lesquereux  equally  explains  it  by  the  nature  of  the  soil,  in  a 
different  way.  These  and  other  excellent  observers  scout  the 
idea  that  immemorial  burnings,  in  autumn  and  spring,  have 
had  any  effect.  Professor  Shaler,  from  his  observations  in  the 
border  land  of  Kentucky,  thinks  that  they  have,  —  that  there 
are  indications  there  of  comparatively  recent  conversion  of 
Oak-openings  into  prairie,  and  now  —  since  the  burnings  are 
over  —  of  the  reconversion  of  prairie  into  woodland. 

I  am  disposed,  on  general  considerations,  to  think  that  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  our  woods  and  our  plains  is  not 
where  it  was  draVn  by  Nature.  Here,  when  no  physical  bar- 
rier is  interposed  between  the  ground  that  receives  rain  enough 
for  forest  and  that  which  receives  too  little,  there  must  be  a 
debatable  border,  where  comparatively  slight  causes  will  turn 
the  scale  either  way.  Difference  in  soil  and  difference  in  expo- 
sure will  here  tell  decisively.  And  along  this  border,  annual 
burnings  —  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  and  improving  Buf- 
falo-feed—  practised  for  hundreds  of  years  by  our  nomade 
predecessors,  may  have  had  a  very  marked  effect.  I  suspect  that 
the  irregular  border  line  may  have  in  this  way  been  rendered 
more  irregular,  and  have  been  carried  farther  eastward  wher- 
ever nature  of  soil  or  circumstances  of  exposure  predisposed 
to  it. 

It  does  not  follow  that  trees  would  reoccupy  the  land  when 
the  operation  that  destroyed  them,  or  kept  them  down,  ceased. 
The  established  turf  or  other  occupation  of  the  soil,  and  the 


216  ESS  A  YS. 

sweeping  winds,  might  prevent  that.  The  difficulty  of  re-for- 
esting bleak  New  England  coasts,  which  were  originally  well 
wooded,  is  well  known.  It  is  equally  but  probably  not  more 
difficult  to  establish  forest  on  an  Iowa  prairie,  with  proper 
selection  of  trees. 

The  difference  in  the  composition  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pa- 
cific forests  is  not  less  marked  than  that  of  the  climate  and 
geographical  configuration  to  which  the  two  are  respectively 
adapted. 

With  some  very  notable  exceptions,  the  forests  of  the  whole 
northern  hemisphere  in  the  temperate  zone  (those  that  we  are 
concerned  with)  are  mainly  made  up  of  the  same  or  similar 
kinds.  Not  of  the  same  species  ;  for  rarely  do  identical  trees 
occur  in  any  two  or  more  widely  separated  regions.  But  all 
round  the  world  in  our  zone,  the  woods  contain  Pines  and 
Firs  and  Larches,  Cypresses  and  Junipers,  Oaks  and  Birches, 
Willows  and  Poplars,  Maples  and  Ashes,  and  the  like.  Yet 
with  all  these  family  likenesses  throughout,  each  region  has 
some  peculiar  features,  some  trees  by  which  the  country  may 
at  once  be  distinguished. 

Beginning  by  a  comparison  of  our  Pacific  with  our  Atlantic 
forest,  I  need  not  take  the  time  to  enumerate  the  trees  of  the 
latter,  as  we  all  may  be  supposed  to  know.t!  em,  and  many  of 
the  genera  will  have  to  be  mentioned  in  drawing  the  contrast 
to  which  I  invite  your  attention.  In  this  you  will  be  impressed 
most  of  all,  I  think,  with  the  fact  that,  the  greater  part  of  our 
familiar  trees  are  "  conspicuous  by  their  absence  "  from  the 
Pacific  forest. 

For  example,  it  has  no  Magnolias,  no  Tulip-tree,  no  Papaw, 
no  Linden  or  Basswood,  and  is  very  poor  in  Maples  ;  no  Lo- 
cust-tree —  neither  Flowering  Locust  nor  Honey  Locust  — 
nor  any  Leguminous  tree  ;  no  Cherry  large  enough  for  a  tim-v 
ber-tree,  like  our  wild  Black  Cherry  ;  no  Gum-trees  (Nyssa 
nor  Liquidambar),  nor  Sorrel-tree,  nor  Kahnia  ;  no  Persim- 
som,  or  Bumelia  ;  not  a  Holly  ;  only  one  Ash  that  may  be 
called  a  timber-tree ;  no  Catalpa,  or  Sassafras ;  not  a  single 
Elm,  nor  Hackberry  ;  not  a  Mulberry,  nor  Planer-tree,  nor 
Madura ;  not  a  Hickory,  nor  a  Beech,  nor  a  true  Chestnut, 


F0REsr  eioeRirir  ^  AncH*ou>r,y.     W 

north,  where  the  ^v^™*  «f  ^  ^^ 

Coniferous  trees,  the  on  ly  m « "8 W>  and  that  de- 

the  so-called  Cypress  ^  fw  as   *  ordinary  trees 

fleiency  is  made  up  ^»»     Q  and  Califorma  of 

i{  you  ask  what  takes  the  pta« ™ ^\S  om.  gide  o£  the 

./these  missing  ^'f^oT  nearly  nothing.  There 
continent,  I  ^  ^\^^  oi  our  Kahnia  (both  really 
is  the  Madrona  (Arbutus ^  ^  California  Laurel 

trees  in  some  places)  ;   and  there  ^  (>{ 

instead  of  our  ^^JfJ^  Pacific  forest  equal  the 
genera  common  to  «-*£/£  ^  as  many  Maples,  nor 
Atlantic  inspecres.     It  to s  n  and  thoSe    t 

Ashes,  nor  Poplars,  nor  W.ta*K£  .  u  ^  „ot  half 

has  are  of  smaller, «« djj h« ^  ^  o£  s0  inferlor 
as  many  Oaks  ;  ^  a  pas9aUe  wago^ 

s££3a£  ft*—-*  -  *  <eauy  good 
-ins^of.e— --^:tr:= 

be  exhibited  graplnca  ly,  »  a™5 ^  ^  whereas  the 

he  eye  more  impressrvely  ha*  wton^  ^  ^  ^  hml. 
Vtlantic  forest  is  composed £  «*•  ^  ^  only  tl  ty. 
bed  and  fifty-five  spec.es,   to  Pam  ^  appeuded  d 

ne  genera  and  sevent y-e| *  spec  .g  ^  to  the 

trams,  the  short  sxde  <**»™     fhe  number  of  speeres. 

Lmber  of  genera,  to  long «to*>  ^^  ave  lult Ver> 

coniferous  genera,  Pmns,  ^J^lris  are  taken  as  one  genua. 
this  rank,  but  Cupressus  and  Cbam     >P 


218  ESSAYS. 

are  twenty-eight  degrees,  and  the  forest  on  the  coast  runs  some 
degrees  north  of  this ;  the  length  ma}7  therefore  make  up  for 
the  comparative  narrowness  of  the  Pacific  forest  region.  How 
can  so  meagre  a  forest  make  so  imposing  a  show  ?  Surely 
not  by  the  greater  number  and  size  of  its  individuals,  so  far 
as  deciduous  (or  more  correctly  non-coniferous)  trees  are  con- 
cerned ;  for  on  the  whole  they  are  inferior  to  their  eastern 
brethren  in  size  if  not  in  number  of  individuals.  The  rea- 
son is,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  genera  and  species  are 
coniferous  trees ;  and  these,  being  evergreen  (except  the 
Larches),  of  aspiring  port  and  eminently  gregarious  habit, 
usually  dominate  where  they  occur.  While  the  east  has  almost 
three  times  as  many  genera  and  four  times  as  many  species  of 
non-coniferous  trees  as  the  west,  it  has  slightly  fewer  genera 
and  almost  one  half  fewer  species  of  coniferous  trees  than  the 
west.  That  is,  the  Atlantic  coniferous  forest  is  represented 
by  eleven  genera  and  twenty-five  speci«^i  the  Pacific  by 
twelve  genera  and  forty-four  species.  This  relative  prepon- 
derance may  also  be  expressed  by  the  diagrams,  in  which  the 
smaller  inclosed  rectangles,  drawn  on  the  same  scale,  repre- 
sent the  coniferous  portions  of  these  forests. 

Indeed,  the  Pacific  forest  is  made  up  of  conifers,  with  non* 
coniferous  trees  as  occasional  undergrowth   or  as  scattere( 
individuals,  and  conspicuous  only  in  valleys  or  in  the  spars* 
tree-growth  of  plains,  on  which  the  Oaks  at  most  reproduc( 
the  features  of  the  "  Oak-openings  "  here  and  there  bordering 
the  Mississippi  prairie  region.      Perhaps   the    most  striking 
contrast  between  the  west  and  the  east,  along   the  latitude 
usually  traversed,  is  that  between  the  spiry  evergreens  whicl 
the  traveler  leaves  when  he  quits  California,  and  the  familial 
woods  of  various-hued  round-headed  trees  which  give  him  th< 
feeling  of  home  when  he  reaches  the  Mississippi.     The  A1 
lantic  forest  is  particularly  rich  in  these,  and  is  not  meagre  inl 
coniferous  trees.     All  the  glory  of  the  Pacific  forest  is  in  itsi 
coniferous  trees  ;  its  desperate  poverty  in  other  trees  appears 
in  the  annexed  diagram. 

These  diagrams  could  be  made  more  instructive,  and  the 
relative  richness  of  the  forests  round  the  world  in  our  latitude 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       219 

could  be  most  simply  exhibited,  by  the  addition  of  two  or 
three  similar  ones.  Two  would  serve,  one  for  Europe,  the 
other  for  northeast  Asia.  A  third  would  be  the  Himalay- 
Altaian  region,  geographically  intermediate  between  the  other 
two,  as  the  Arizona-Rocky  Mountain  district  is  intermediate 
between  our  eastern  and  western.  Both  are  here  left  out  of 
view,  partly  for  the  same,  partly  for  special  reasons  pertaining 


1  2 

1.  Atlantic  American  Forest. 

2.  Pacific  American  Forest. 


3  4 

3.  Japan-Mandchurian  Forest. 

4.  European  Forest. 


to  each,  which  I  must  not  stop  to  explain.    These  four  marked 
specimens  will  simply  and  clearly  exhibit  the  general  facts. 

Keeping  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  same  scale,  we  may 
count  the  indigenous  forest  trees  of  all  Europe  at  thirty-three 
genera  and  eighty-five  species  ;  and  those  of  the  Japan-Mand- 
churian region,  of  very  much  smaller  geographical  area,  at 
sixty-six  genera  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  species.  I 
here  include  in  it  only  Japan,  eastern  Mandchuria,  and  the 
adjacent  borders  of  China.  The  known  species  of  trees  must 
be  rather  roughly  determined;  but  the  numbers  here  given 
are  not  exaggerated,  and  are  much  more  likely  to  be  sensibly 


220  ESSAYS.  V;"/V 

increased  by  further  knowledge  than  are  those  of  any  of  the 
other  regions.  Properly  to  estimate  the  surpassing  richness 
of  this  Japan-Mandchurian  forest,  the  comparative  smallness 
of  geographical  area  must  come  in  as  an  important  consid- 
eration. 

To  complete  the  view,  let  it  be  noted  that  the  division  of 
these  forests  into  coniferous  and  non-coniferous  is,  for  the 

European,  non-coniferous 26  genera,  68  species. 

"  coniferous        7         "17         " 


Total,    33  genera,  85  species. 

Japan-Mandchurian,  non-coniferous       .     47  genera,  123  species. 
"  "  coniferous         .     .     19         "        45         " 


Total,    6Q  genera,  168  species. 


In  other  words,  a  narrow  region  in  eastern  Asia  contains 
twice  as  many  genera  and  about  twice  as  many  species  of  in- 
digenous trees  as  are  possessed  by  all  Europe ;  and  as  to  co- 
niferous trees,  the  former  has  more  genera  than  the  latter  has 
species,  and  over  twice  and  a  half  as  many  species. 

The  only  question  about  the  relation  of  these  four  forest- 
regions,  as  to  their  component  species,  which  we  can  here 
pause  to  answer,  is  to  what  extent  they  contain  trees  of  iden- 
tical species.  If  we  took  the  shrubs,  there  would  be  a  small 
number,  if  the  herbs  a  very  considerable  number,  of  species 
common  to  the  two  New  World  and  t  >  the  two  Old  World 
areas  respectively,  at  least  to  their  norihern  portions,  even 
after  excluding  arctic-alpine  plants.  The  same  may  be  said, 
in  its  degree,  of  the  north  European  flora,  compared  with  the 
Atlantic  North  American,  of  the  northeast  Asiatic  compared 
with  the  northern  part  of  the  Pacific  North  American,  and 
also  in  a  peculiar  way  (which  I  have  formerly  pointed  out 
and  shall  have  soon  to  mention)  of  the  northeastern  Asiatic 
flora  in  its  relations  to  the  Atlantic  North  American.  But 
as  to  the  forest  trees  there  is  very  little  community  of  species. 
Yet  this  is  not  absolutely  wanting.  The  Red  Cedar  (Juni- 
perus  Virginiana)  among  coniferous  trees,  and  Pojjf/hts 
t7%emuloides  among  the  deciduous,  extend  across  the  American 


l 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       221 

continent  specifically  unchanged,  though  hardly  developed  as 
forest  trees  on  the  Pacific  side.  There  are  probably,  but  not 
certainly,  one  or  two  instances  on  the  northern  verge  of  these 
two  forests.  There  are  as  many  in  which  eastern  and  west- 
ern species  are  suggestively  similar.     The  I  temlock  Spru< i 

the  northern  Atlantic  States  and  the  Yew  <>i'  Florida  are  ex- 
tremely like  corresponding  trees  of  the  Pacific  forest :  indeed 
the  Yew-trees  of  all  four  regions  may  com.'  to  be  regarded  as 
forms  of  one  polymorphous  species.  The  White  Birch  of 
Europe  and  that  of  Canada  and  New  England  are  in  similar 
case;  and  so  is  the  common  Chestnut  (in  America  confined 
to  the  Atlantic  States),  which  on  the  other  side  of  the  world 
is  also  represented  in  Japan.  A  link  in  the  other  direction  is 
seen  in  one  Spruce-tree  (called  in  Oregon  Menzies  Spruce  ) 
which  inhabits  northeast  Asia,  while  a  peculiar  form  of  it 
represents  the  species  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

But  now  other  and  more  theoretical  questions  come  to  be 
asked,  such  as  these  :  — 

Why  should  our  Pacific  forest-region,  which  is  rich  and  in 
some  respects  unique  in  coniferous,  be  so  poor  in  deciduous 
trees  ? 

Then  the  two  Big  Trees,  Sequoias,  as  isolated  in  character 
as  in  location, — being  found  only  in  California,  and  having 
no  near  relatives  anywhere,  —  how  came  California  to  have 
them  ? 

Such  relatives  as  the  Sequoias  have  arc  also  local,  peculiar, 
and  chiefly  of  one  species  to  each  genus.  Only  one  of  them 
is  American,  and  that  solely  eastern,  the  Taxodium  of  our 
Atlantic  States  and  the  plateau  of  Mexico.  The  others  are 
Japanese  and  Chinese. 

Why  should  trees  of  six  related  genera,  which  will  a]J^hi  isv 
in  Europe,  be  restricted  naturally,  one  to  the  east« 
the  American  continent,  one  genus  to  tic  wester 
very  locally,  the  rest  to  a  small  portion  of  the 
of  Asia? 

jK  Why  should  coniferous  trees  most  affeel 
greatest  number  of  types  in  these  parts  of  tl 

And    why  should  the    northeast   Asian    re 


222  ESSAYS. 

comparatively  small  area,  not  only  most  coniferous  trees,  but 
a  notably  larger  number  of  trees  altogether  than  any  other 
part  of  the  northern  temperate  zone  ?  Why  should  its  only 
and  near  rival  be  in  the  antipodes,  namely,  here  in  Atlantic 
North  America?  In  other  words,  why  should  the  Pacific  and 
the  European  forests  be  so  poor  in  comparison,  and  why  the 
Pacific  poorest  of  all  in  deciduous,  yet  rich  in  coniferous 
trees  ? 

The  first  step  toward  an  explanation  of  the  superior  rich- 
ness in  trees  of  these  antipodal  regions,  is  to  note  some  strik- 
ing similarities  of  the  two,  and  especially  the  number  of 
peculiar  types  which  they  divide  between  them.  The  ulti- 
mate conclusion  may  at  length  be  ventured,  that  this  richness 
is  normal,  and  that  what  we  really  have  to  explain  is  the  ab- 
sence of  so  many  forms  from  Europe  on  the  one  hand,  from 
Oregon  and  California  on  the  other.  Let  me  recall  to  mind 
the  list  of  kinds  (i.  e.  genera)  of  trees  which  enrich  our  At- 
lantic forest  but  are  wanting  to  that  of  the  Pacific.  Now  al- 
most all  these  recur,  in  more  or  less  similar  but  not  identical 
species,  in  Japan,  north  China,  etc.  Some  of  them  are  like- 
wise European,  but  more  are  not  so.  Extending  the  com- 
parison to  shrubs  and  herbs,  it  more  and  more  appears,  that 
the  forms  and  types  which  we  count  as  peculiar  to  our  At- 
lantic region,  when  we  compare  them,  as  we  first  naturally 
do,  with  Europe  and  with  our  West,  have  their  close  counter- 
parts in  Japan  and  north  China ;  some  in  identical  species 
(especially  among  the  herbs),  often  in  strikingly  similar 
ones,  not  rarely  as  sole  species  of  peculiar  genera  or  in  related 

neric  types.     I  was  a  very  young  botanist  when  I  began  to 

"notice  this  ;  and  I  have  from  time  to  time  made  lists  of  such 

distances.     Evidences   of    this  remarkable  relationship  have 

•plied  year  after  year,  until  what  was  long  a  wonder  has 

h**be  so  common  that  I  should  now  not  be  greatly  sur- 

pl^BPM^Sarracenia  or  a  Dionaea,  or  their  like,  should  turn 

up  in  eastern  Asia.     Very  few  of  such  isolated  types  remain 

withoui     •       t»parts.     It  is    as  if   Nature,   when    she   had 

a  genus  to  go  round,  dealt  them  fairly,  one 

at  least  tcrlejch  quarter  of  our  zone  ;  but  when  she  had  only 


Yv 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND   ARCHAEOLOGY.       223 

two  of  some  peculiar  kind,  gave  one  to  us  and  the  other  to 
Japan,  Mandchuria,  or  the  Himalayas  ;  when  she  had  only  one, 
divided  these  between  the  two  partners  on  the  opposite  sides 
of  the  table.  The  result,  as  to  the  trees,  is  seen  in  these  four 
diagrams.  As  to  number  of  species  generally,  it  cannot  be 
said  that  Europe  and  Pacific  North  America  are  at  all  in 
arrears.  But  as  to  trees,  either  the  contrasted  regions  have 
been  exceptionally  favored,  or  these  have  been  hardly  dealt 
with.  There  is,  as  I  have  intimated,  some  reason  to  adopt 
the  latter  alternative. 

We  may  take  it  for  granted  that  the  indigenous  plants  of 
any  country,  particularly  the  trees,  have  been  selected  by 
climate.  Whatever  other  influences  or  circumstances  have 
been  brought  to  bear  ivpon  them,  or  the  trees  have  brought  to 
bear  on  each  other,  no  tree  could  hold  its  place  as  a  member 
of  any  forest  or  flora  which  is  not  adapted  to  endure  even 
the  extremes  of  the  climate  of •  the  region  or  station.  But 
the  character  of  the  climate  will  not  explain  the  remarkable 
paucity  of  the  trees  which  compose  the  indigenous  European 
forest.  That  is  proved  by  experiment,  sufficiently  prolonged 
in  certain  cases  to  justify  the  inference.  Probably  there  is  no 
tree  of  the  northern  temperate  zone  which  will  not  flourish  in 
some  part  of  Europe.  Great  Britain  alone  can  grow  double 
or  treble  the  number  of  trees  that  the  Atlantic  States  can. 
In  all  the  latter  we  can  grow  hardly  one  tree  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  England  supports  all  of  them,  and  all  our  Atlantic 
trees  also,  and  likewise  the  Japanese  and  north  Siberian  spe- 
cies, which  do  thrive  here  remarkably  in  some  part  of  the 
Atlantic  coast,  especially  the  cooler  temperate  ones.  The 
poverty  of  the  European  sylva  is  attributable  to  the  absence 
of  our  Atlantic  American  types,  to  its  having  no  Magnolia, 
Liriodendron,  Asimina,  Negundo,  no  iEsculus,  tone  of  that 
rich  assemblage  of  Leguminous  trees  represented  by  Locusts, 
Honey-Locusts,  Gymnocladus,  and  Cladrastis  (.vm  \\>  CVr- 
cis,  which  is  hardly  European,  is  like  the  (  alifornian  one 
mainly  a  shrub)  ;  no  Nyssa,  nor  Liquidambai  ;  no  ,£>/'"/"" 
rising  to  a  tree;  no  Bumelia,  Catalpa,  Sas&'iiras.  Osage 
Orange,  Hickory,  or  Walnut;  and  as  to  Coi'ifers.  no  linn- 


224  ESS  A  YS. 

lock  Spruce,  Arbor-Vitae,  Taxoclium,  or  Torreya.  As  com- 
pared with  northeastern  Asia,  Europe  wants  most  of  these 
same  types,  also  the  Ailantus,  Gingko,  and  a  goodly  number 
of  coniferous  genera.  I  cannot  point  to  any  types  tending 
to  make  up  the  deficiency,  that  is,  to  any  not  either  in  east 
North  America  or  in  northeast  Asia,  or  in  both.  Cedrus, 
the  true  Cedar,  which  comes  near  to  it,  is  only  north  African 
and  Asian.  I  need  not  say  that  Europe  has  uo  Sequoia,  and 
shares  no  special  type  with  California. 

Now  the  capital  fact  is,  that  many  and  perhaps  almost  all 
of  these  genera  of  trees  were  well  represented  in  Europe 
throughout  the  later  Tertiary  times.  It  had  not  only  the 
same  generic  types,  but  in  some  cases  even  the  same  species, 
or  what  must  ])ass  as  such,  in  the  lack  of  recognizable  distinc- 
tions between  fossil  remains  and  living  analogues.  Probably 
the  European  Miocene  forest  was  about  as  rich  and  various  as 
is  ours  of  the  present  day,  and  very  like  it.  The  Glacial  pe- 
riod came  and  passed,  and  these  t}^pes  have  not  survived  there, 
nor  returned.  Hence  the  comparative  poverty  of  the  existing 
European  sylva,  or,  at  least,  the  probable  explanation  of  the 
absence  of  those  kinds  of  trees  which  make  the  characteristic 
difference. 

Why  did  these  trees  perish  out  of  Europe  but  survive  in 
America  and  Asia  ?  Before  wre  inquire  how  Europe  lost  them, 
it  may  be  well  to  ask,  how  it  got  them.  How  came  these 
American  trees  to  be  in  Europe  ?  And  among  the  rest,  how 
came  Europe  to  have  Sequoias,  now  represented  only  by  our 
two  Big  Trees  of  California  ?  It  actually  possessed  two  species 
and  more  ;  one  so  closely  answering  to  the  Redwood  of  the  coast 
ranges,  and  another  so  very  like  the  Sequoia  gigantea  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  that,  if  such  fossil  twigs  with  leaves  and  cones 
had  been  exhumed  in  California  instead  of  in  Europe,  it  would 
confidently  be  affirmed  that  we  had  resurrected  the  veritable 
ancestors  of  our  two  giant  trees.  Indeed,  so  it  may  probably 
be.  "  Caelum  non  animam  mutant,"  etc.,  may  be  applicable 
even  to  such  wide  wanderings  and  such  vast  intervals  of  time. 
If  the  specific  essence  has  not  changed,  and  even  if  it  has  suf- 
fered some  change,  genealogical  connection  is  to  be  inferred 
in  all  such  cases.  , 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHEOLOGY.        225 

That  is,  in  these  days  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  individ- 
uals of  the  same  species,  or  with  a  certain  likeness  through- 
out, had  a  single  birthplace,  and  are  descended  from  the  same 
stock,  no  matter  how  widely  separated  they  may  have  been 
either  in  space  or  time,  or  both.  The  contrary  supposition 
may  be  made,  and  was  seriously  entertained  by  some  nol  trery 
long  ago.  It  is  even  supposable  that  plants  and  animals  orig- 
inated where  they  now  are,  or  where  their  remains  are  found. 
But1  this  is  not  science  ;  in  other  words  it  is  not  conformable 
to  what  we  now  know,  and  is  an  assertion  that  scientific  ex- 
planation is  not  to  be  sought. 

Furthermore,  when  species  of  the  same  genus  are  not  found 
almost  everywhere,  they  are  usually  grouped  in  one  region, 
as  are  the  Hickories  in  the  Atlantic  States,  the  Asters  and 
Goldenrods  in  North  America  and  prevailingly  on  the  Atlan- 
tic side,  the  Heaths  in  western  Europe  and  Africa.  From 
this  we  are  led  to  the  inference  that  all  species  closely  related 
to  each  other  have  had  a  common  birthplace  and  origin.  So 
that,  wdien  we  find  individuals  of  a  species  or  of  a  group 
widely  out  of  the  range  of  their  fellows,  we  wonder  how  they 
got  there.  When  we  find  the  same  species  all  round  the 
hemisphere,  we  ask  how  this  dispersion  came  to  pass. 

Now,  a  very  considerable  number  of  species  of  herbs  and 
shrubs,  and  a  few  trees,  of  the  temperate  zone  are  found  all 
round  the  northern  hemisphere ;  many  others  are  found  part 
way  round,  —  some  in  Europe  and  eastern  Asia:  some  in 
Europe  and  our  Atlantic  States ;  many,  as  I  have  said,  in  the 
Atlantic  States  and  eastern  Asia;  fewer  (which  is  curious) 
common  to  the  Pacific  States  and  eastern  Asia,  nearer  though 
these  countries  be. 

We  may  set  it  down  as  useless  to  try  to  account  for  llii>  dis- 
tribution by  causes  now  in  operation  and  opportunities  now 
afforded,  i.  c,  for  distribution  across  oceans  by  winds  and  cur- 
rents, and  birds.  These  means  play  their  part  in  dispersion 
from  place  to  place,  by  step  after  step,  but  not  from  continent 
to  continent,  except  for  few  things  and  in  a  subordinate  way. 

Fo^unately  we  are  not  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  over- 
strained suppositions  of  what  might  possibly  have  occurred 


226  ESSAYS, 

now  and  then,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  by  the  chance  conveyance 
of  seeds  across  oceans,  or  even  from  one  mountain  to  another. 
The  plants  of  the  top  of  the  White  Mountains   and  of  Labra- 
dor are  mainly  the  same ;  but  we  need  not  suppose  that  it  ir? 
so  because  birds  have  carried  seeds  from  the  one  to  the  other/' 

I  take  it  that  the  true  explanation  of  the  whole  problem 
comes  from  a  just  general  view,  and   not   through  piecemeal \ 
suppositions  of  chances.  And  I  am  clear  that  it  is  to  be  found 
by  looking  to  the  north,  to  the  state  of  things  at  the  arctic 
zone,  —  first,  as  it  now  is,  and  then  as  it  has  been. 

North  of  our  forest-regions  comes  the  zone  unwooded  from 
cold,  the  zone  of  arctic  vegetation.  In  this,  as  a  rule,  the 
species  are  the  same  round  the  world  ;  as  exceptions,  some  are 
restricted  to  a  part  of  the  circle. 

The  polar  projection  of  the  earth  down  to  the  northern 
tropic,  as  here  exhibited,  shows  to  the  eye  —  as  our  maps  do 
not  —  how  all  the  lands  come  together  into  one  region,  and 
how  natural  it  may  be  for  the  same  species,  under  homogene- 
ous conditions,  to  spread  over  it.  When  we  know,  moreover, 
that  sea  and  land  have  varied  greatly  since  these  species  ex- 
isted, we  may  well  believe  that  any  ocean-gaps,  now  in  the 
way  of  equable  distribution,  may  have  been  bridged  over. 
There  is  now  only  one  considerable  gap. 

What  would  happen  if  a  cold  period  was  to  come  on  from 
the  north,  and  was  to  carry  very  slowly  the  present  arctic 
climate,  or  something  like  it,  down  far  into  the  temperate 
zone  ?  Why,  just  what  has  haprjened  in  the  Glacial  period, 
when  the  refrigeration  somehow  pushed  all  these  plants  before 
it  down  to  southern  Europe,  to  middle  Asia,  to  the  middle 
and  southern  part  of  the  United  States  ;  and,  at  length  reced- 
ing, left  some  parts  of  them  stranded  on  the  Pyrenees,  the 
Alps,  the  Apennines,  the  Caucasus,  on  our  White  and  Rocky 
Mountains,  or  wherever  they  could  escape  the  increasing 
warmth  as  well  by  ascending  mountains  as  by  receding  north- 
ward at  lower  levels.  Those  that  kept  together  at  a  low  level, 
and  made  good  their  retreat,  form  the  main  body  of  present 
arctic  vegetation.  Those  that  took  to  the  mountains  ha(^  their 
line  of  retreat  cut  off,  and  hold  their  positions  on  the  moun- 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND   ARCHAEOLOGY.      227 

tarn-tops  under  cover  of  the  frigid  climate  clue  to  elevation. 
The  conditions  of  these  on  different  continents  or  different 
mountains  are  similar,  hut  not  wholly  alike.  Some  species 
prowd  better  adapted  to  one,  some  to  another,  pari  of  the 
world;  where  less  adapted,  or  less  adaptable,  they  have  per- 
ished; where  better  adapted,  they  continue,  —  with  or  with- 
out some  change;  and  hence  the  diversification  of  alpine 
plants,  as  well  as  the  general  likeness  through  all  the  northern 
hemisphere. 

All  this  exactly  applies  to  the  temperate-zone  vegetation, 
and  to  the  trees  that  we  are  concerned  with.  The  clew  was 
seized  when  the  fossil  botany  of  the  high  arctic  regions  came 
to  light;  when  it  was  demonstrated  that  in  the  times  uext 
preceding  the  Glacial  period  —  in  the  latest  Tertiary  —  from 
Spitzbergen  and  Iceland  to  Greenland  and  Kamtschatka,  a 
climate  like  that  we  now  enjoy  prevailed,  and  forests  like 
those  of  New  England  and  Virginia,  and  of  California, 
clothed  the  land.  "We  infer  the  climate  from  the  trees  ;  and 
the  trees  give  sure  indications  of  the  climate. 

I  had  divined  and  published  the  explanation  long  before  I 
knew  of  the  fossil  plants.  These,  since  made  known,  render 
the  inference  sure,  and  give  us  a  clear  idea  of  ]usi  what  the 
climate  was.  At  the  time  we  speak  of,  Greenland,  Spitzber- 
gen, and  our  arctic  sea-shore  had  the  climate  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia  now.  It  would  take  too  much  time  to  enumer- 
ate the  sorts  of  trees  that  have  been  identified  by  their  Leaves 
and  fruits  in  the  arctic  later  Tertiary  deposits. 

I  can  only  say,  at  large,  that  the  same  species  have  been 
found  all  round  the  world  ;  that  the  richest  and  mosl  exten- 
sive finds  are  in  Greenland  j  that  they  comprise  most  of  the 
sorts  which  I  have  spoken  of  as  American  trees  which  once 
lived  in  Europe,  —  Magnolias,  Sassafras,  Hickories,  Gum- 
trees,  our  identical  Southern  Cypress  (for  all  we  can  Bee  <>t 
difference),  and  especially  Sequoias,  not  only  the  two  which 
obviously  answer  to  the  two  Big  Trees  now  peculiar  t«»  ( Cali- 
fornia, but  several  others:  that  they  equally  comprise  trees 
now  peculiar  to  Japan  and  China,  three  kinds  of  Gingko- 
trees,  for  instance,  one  of  them  not  evidently  distinguishable 


4 


228  ESS  A  YS. 

from  the  Japanese  species  which  alone  survives  ;  that  we  have 
evidence,  not  merely  of  Pines  and  Maples,  Poplars,  Birches, 
Lindens,  and  whatever  else  characterize  the  temperate-zone 
forests  of  our  era,  but  also  of  particular  species  of  these,  so 
like  those  of  our  own  time  and  country,  that  we  may  fairly 
reckon  them  as  the  ancestors  of  several  of  ours.     Lomr  <rone- 

o    o    ^ 

alogies  always  deal  more  or  less  in  conjecture  ;  but  we  appeag 
to  be  within  the  limits  of  scientific  inference  when  we  aiil 
nounce  that  our  existing  temperate  trees  came  from  the  north, 
and  within  the  bounds  of  nigh  probability  when  we  claim  not 
a  few  of  them  as  the  originals  of  present  species.  Remains 
of  the  same  plants  have  been  found  fossil  in  our  temperate 
region,  as  well  as  in  Europe. 

Here,  then,  we  have  reached  a  fair  answer  to  the  question 
how  the  same  or  similar  species  of  our  trees  came  to  be  so  dis- 
persed over  such  widely  separated  continents.  The  lands  all 
diverge  from  a  polar  centre,  and  their  proximate  portions  — 
however  different  from  their  present  configuration  and  extent, 
and  however  changed  at  different  times  —  were  once  the  home 
of  those  trees,  where  they  flourished  in  a  temperate  climate. 
The  cold  period  which  followed,  and  which  doubtless  came  on 
by  very  slow  degrees  during  ages  of  time,  must  have  long- 
before  its  culmination  brought  down  to  our  latitude,  with 
the  similar  climate,  the  forest  they  possess  now,  or  rather  the 
ancestors  of  it.  During  this  long  (and  we  may  believe  first) 
occupancy  of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  were  deposited  in 
pools  and  shallow  waters  the  cast  leaves,  fruits,  and  occasionally 
the  branches,  which  are  imbedded  in  what  are  called  Miocene 
Tertiary  or  later  deposits,  most  abundant  in  Europe,  from 
which  the  American  character  of  the  vegetation  of  the  period 
is  inferred.  Geologists  give  the  same  name  to  these  beds,  in 
Greenland  and  southern  Europe,  because  they  contain  the 
remains  of  identical  or  very  similar  species  of  plants ;  and 
they  used  to  regard  them  as  of  the  same  age  on  account  of 
this  identity.  But  in  fact  this  identity  is  good  evidence  that 
they  cannot  be  synchronous.  The  beds  in  the  lower  latitudes 
must  be  later,  and  were  forming  when  Greenland  probably 
had  very  nearly  the  climate  which  it  has  now. 


FOREST   GEOGRAPHY  AND   ARCHAEOLOGY.       229 

Wherefore  the  high,  and  not  the  low,  latitudes  must  be 
assumed  as  the  birthplace  of  our  present  flora  ;  l  and  the 
present  arctic  vegetation  is  best  regarded  as  a  derivative  of 
the  temperate.  This  flora,  which  when  circumpolar  was  as 
nearly  homogeneous  round  the  high  latitudes  as  the  arctic 
vegetation  is  now,  when  slowly  translated  into  lower  latitudes, 
would  preserve  its  homogeneousness  enough  to  account  for 
the  actual  distribution  of  the  same  and  similar  species  round 
the  world,  and  for  the  original  endowment  of  Europe  with 
what  we  now  call  American  types.  It  would  also  vary  or  lie 
selected  from  by  the  increasing  differentiation  of  climate  in 
the  divergent  continents,  and  on  their  different  sides,  in  a  way 
which  might  well  account  for  the  present  diversification. 
From  an  early  period,  the  system  of  the  winds,  the  great 
ocean  currents  (however  they  may  have  oscillated  north  and 
south),  and  the  general  proportions  and  features  of  the  conti- 
nents in  our  latitude  (at  least  of  the  American  continent) 
were  much  the  same  as  now,  so  that  species  of  plants,  ever  so 
little  adapted  or  predisposed  to  cold  winters  and  hot  summers, 
would  abide  and  be  developed  on  the  eastern  side  of  conti- 
nents, therefore  in  the  Atlantic  States  and  in  Japan  and 
Mandchuria ;  those  with  preference  for  milder  winters  would 
jjcline  to  the  western  sides ;  those  disposed  to  tolerate  dryness 
Rould  tend  to  interiors,  or  to  regions  lacking  summer  rain. 
So  that,  if  the  same  thousand  species  were  thrust  promiscu- 
fflksly  into  these  several  districts,  and  carried  slowly  onward 
in  the  way  supposed,  they  would  inevitably  be  sifted  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  survival  of  the  fittest  for  each  district  might 
explain  the  present  diversity. 

(■Besides,  there  are  re-sif tings  to  take  into  the  account.  The 
HBacial  period  or  refrigeration  from  the  north,  which  at  its 
inception  forced  the  temperate  flora  into  our  latitude,  at  its 
culmination  must  have  carried  much  or  most  of  it  quite  be- 
yond.     To  what  extent  displaced,  and  how  far  superseded   by 

WB  This  takes  for  granted,  after  Nordenskjbld,  that  there  wat  i  j»re- 
eeding  (ilaeial  period,  as  neither  palaeontology  nor  the  itr  .  of  arctic 
sedimentary  strata  afford  any  evidence  of  it.  Or  if  t'  was  any,  it 
vas  too  remote  in  time  to  concern  the  present  epiestio* 


230  ESSAYS. 

the  vegetation  which  in  our  day  borders  the  ice,  or  by  ice  it- 
self, it  is  difficult  to  form  more  than  general  conjectures  —  so 
different  and  conflicting  are  the  views  of  geologists  upon  the 
Glacial  period.  But  upon  any,  or  almost  any,  of  these  views, 
it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  temperate  vegetation,  such  as  pre- 
ceded the  refrigeration  and  has  now  again  succeeded  it,  was 
either  thrust  out  of  northern  Europe  and  the  northern  At- 
lantic States,  or  was  reduced  to  precarious  existence  and  di- 
minished forms.  It  also  appears  that,  on  our  own  continent 
at  least,  a  milder  climate  than  the  present,  and  a  considerable 
submergence  of  land,  transiently  supervened  at  the  north,  to 
which  the  vegetation  must  have  sensibly  responded  by  a  north- 
ward movement,  from  which  it  afterward  receded. 

All  these  vicissitudes  must  have  left  their  impress  upon  the 
actual  vegetation,  and  particularly  upon  the  trees.  They  fur- 
nish probable  reason  for  the*  loss  of  American  types  sustained 
by  Europe. 

I  conceive  that  three  things  have  conspired  to  this  loss. 
First,  Europe,  hardly  extending  south  of  latitude  40°,  is  all 
within  the  limits  generally  assigned  to  severe  glacial  action. 
Second,  its  mountains  trend  east  and  west,  from  the  Pyrenees 
to  the  Carpathians  and  the  Caucasus  beyond,  near  its  southern 
border ;  and  they  had  glaciers  of  their  own,  which  must  have 
begun  their  operations,  and  poured  down  the  northward 
flanks,  while  the  plains  were  still  covered  with  forest  on  the 
retreat  from  the  great  ice-wave  coming  from  the  north.  At- 
tacked both  on  front  and  rear,  much  of  the  forest  must  have 
perished  then  and  there.  Third,  across  the  line  of  retreat  of 
those  which  may  have  flanked  the  mountain-ranges,  or  were 
stationed  south  of  them,  stretched  the  Mediterranean,  an  im- 
passable barrier.  Some  hardy  trees  may  have  eked  out  thei:* 
existence  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Atlantic  coast.  But  we  doubt  not,  Taxodium  and  Sequoias, 
Magnolias  and  Liquidambars,  and  even  Hickories  and  the 
like,  were  among  the  missing.  Escape  by  the  east,  and  re 
habil'^tion  from  that  quarter  until  a  very  late  period,  was 
appareinii  ore  vented  by  the  prolongation  of  the  Medi  terra-' 
nean  to  thttfc^spian,  and  thence  to  the  Siberian  ocean.    If  w«* 


k 


FOREST  GEOGRAPHY  AND   ARCHAEOLOGY.       231 

accept  the  supposition  of  Nordenskjold,  that  anterior  to  the 
Glacial  period,  Europe  was  "  bounded  on  the  south  by  an 
ocean  extending  from  the  Atlantic  over  the  present  deserts  of 
Sahara  and  Central  Asia  to  the  Pacific,"  all  chance  of  these 
American  types  having  escaped  from  or  reentered  Europe 
from  the  south  and  east,  is  excluded.  Europe  may  thus  be 
conceived  to  have  been  for  a  time  somewhat  in  the  condition 
in  which  Greenland  is  now,  and  indeed  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  Greenland  in  this  or  in  earlier  times.  Such  a 
junction,  cutting  off  access  of  the  Gulf  Stream  to  the  Polar  sea, 
would,  as  some  think,  other  things  remaining  as  1 1 1«  \  are,  al- 
most of  itself  give  glaciation  to  Europe.  Greenland  may  be 
referred  to,  by  way  of  comparison,  as  a  country  which  having 
undergone  extreme  glaciation,  bears  the  marks  of  it  in  the  ex- 
treme poverty  of  its  flora,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  plants 
to  which  its  southern  portion,  extending  six  degrees  below  the 
arctic  circle,  might  be  entitled.  It  ought  to  have  trees,  and 
might  support  them.  But  since  destruction  by  glaciation,  do 
way  has  been  open  for  their  return.  Europe  fared  much  bet- 
ter, but  suffered  in  its  degree  in  a  similar  way. 

Turning  for  a  moment  to  the  American  continent  for  a 
contrast,  we  find  the  land  unbroken  and  open  down  to  the 
tropic,  and  the  mountains  running  north  and  south.  The 
trees,  when  touched  on  the  north  by  the  on-coming  refrigera- 
tion, had  only  to  move  their  southern  border  southward,  along 
an  open  way,  as  far  as  the  exigency  required  ;  and  there  was 
no  impediment  to  their  due  return.  Then  the  more  southern 
latitude  of  the  United  States  gave  great  advantage  over  Eu- 
rope. On  the  Atlantic  border,  proper  glaciation  was  felt 
only  in  the  northern  part,  down  to  about  latitude  4<>  .  In 
the  interior  of  the  country,  owing  doubtless  to  greater  dry- 
ness and  summer  heat,  the  limit  receded  greatly  northward 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  gave  only  local  glaciers  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains;  and  no  volcanic  outbreaks  or  violent 
changes  of  any  kind  have  here  occurred  since  the  types  of  our 
present  vegetation  came  to  the  land.  So  our  lines  have  been 
cast  in  pleasant  places,  and  the  goodly  heritage  of  fon  i\  trees 
is  one  of  the  consequences. 


232  ESSAYS. 

The  still  greater  richness  of  northeast  Asia  in  arboreal 
vegetation  may  find  explanation  in  the  prevalence  of  particu- 
larly favorable  conditions,  both  ante-glacial  and  recent.  The 
trees  of  the  Miocene  circumpolar  forest  appear  to  have  found 
there  a  secure  home  ;  and  the  Japanese  islands,  to  which 
most  of  these  trees  belong,  must  be  remarkably  adapted  to 
them.  The  situation  of  these  islands  —  analogous  to  that  of 
Great  Britain,  but  with  the  advantage  of  lower  latitude  and 
greater  sunshine,  —  their  ample  extent  north  and  south,  their 
diversified  configuration,  their  proximity  to  the  great  Pacific 
gulf-stream,  by  which  a  vast  body  of  warm  water  sweeps 
along  their  accentuated  shores,  and  the  comparatively  equable 
diffusion  of  rain  throughout  the  year,  all  probably  conspire  to 
the  preservation  and  development  of  an  originally  ample  in- 
heritance. 

The  case  of  the  Pacific  forest  is  remarkable  and  paradoxi- 
cal. It  is,  as  we  know,  the  sole  refuge  of  the  most  charac- 
teristic and  widespread  type  of  Miocene  Coniferce,  the  Se- 
quoias ;  it  is  rich  in  coniferous  types  beyond  any  country 
except  Japan  ;  in  its  gold-bearing  gravels  are  indications  that 
it  possessed,  seemingly  clown  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Glacial  period,  Magnolias  and  Beeches,  a  true  Chestnut, 
Liquidambar,  Elms,  and  other  trees  now  wholly  wanting  to 
that  side  of  the  continent,  though  common  both  to  Japan  and 
to  Atlantic  North  America.1  Any  attempted  explanation  of 
this  extreme  paucity  of  the  usually  major  constituents  of  for- 
ests, along  with  a  great  development  of  the  minor,  or  conifer- 
ous, element,  would  take  us  quite  too  far,  and  would  bring  us 
to  mere  conjectures. 

Much  may  be  attributed  to  late  glaciation  ; 2  something  to 
the  tremendous  outpours  of  lava  which,  immediately  before 

1  See,  especially,  "  Report  on  the  Fossil  Plants  of  the  auriferous  gravel 
deposits  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,"  by  L.  Lesquereux  ;  "  Mem.  Mus.  Comp. 
Zoology,"  vi.  No.  2. —  Determinations  of  fossil  leaves,  etc.,  such  as  these, 
may  be  relied  on  to  this  extent  by  the  general  botanist,  however  wary  of 
specific  and  many  generic  identifications.  These  must  be  mainly  left  to 
the  expert  in  fossil  botany. 

2  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  in  an  important  lecture  delivered  to  the  Royal 
Institution  of  Great  Britain,  April  12,  insists  much  on  this. 


FOREST   GEOGRAPHY  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY.       233 

the  period  of  refrigeration,  deeply  covered  a  very  large  part 
of  the  forest-area  ;  much  to  the  narrowness  of  the  forest-belt, 
to  the  want  of  summer  rain,  and  to  the  most  unequal  and 
precarious  distribution  of  that  of  winter. 

Upon  all  these  topics  questions  present  themselves  which 
we  are  not  prepared  to  discuss.  I  have  done  all  that  I  could 
hope  to  do  in  one  lecture  if  I  have  distinctly  shown  that  the 
races  of  trees,  like  the  races  of  men,  have  come  down  to  us 
through  a  prehistoric  (or  pre-natural  historic)  period  ;  and 
that  the  explanation  of  the  present  condition  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  past,  and  traced  in  vestiges  and  remains  and  survi- 
vals ;  that  for  the  vegetable  kingdom  also  there  is  a  veritable 
Archseology. 


THE  PERTINACITY  AND  PREDOMINANCE  OF  WEEDS.1 

A  weed  is  defined  by  the  dictionaries  to  be  "  Any  useless 
or  troublesome  plant."  "  Every  plant  which  grows  in  a  field 
other  than  that  of  which  the  seed  has  been  (intentionally) 
sown  by  the  husbandman  is  a  weed,"  says  the  "  Penny  Cyclo- 
paedia," as  cited  in  Worcester's  Dictionary.  The  "Treasury  of 
Botany  "defines  it  as  "  Any  plant  which  obtrusively  occupies 
cultivated  or  dressed  ground,  to  the  exclusion  or  injury  of 
some  particular  crop  intended  to  be  grown.  Thus,  even  the 
most  useful  plants  may  become  weeds  if  they  appear  out  of 
their  proper  place.  The  term  is  sometimes  applied  to  any  in- 
significant-looking or  unprofitable  plants  which  grow  profusely 
in  a  state  of  nature  ;  also  to  any  noxious  or  useless  plant." 
We  may  for  present  purposes  consider  weeds  to  be  plants 
which  tend  to  take  prevalent  possession  of  soil  used  for  man's 
purposes,  irrespective  of  his  will ;  and,  in  accordance  with 
usage,  we  may  restrict  the  term  to  herbs.  This  excludes  pre- 
dominant indigenous  plants  occupying  ground  in  a  state  of 
nature.  Such  become  weeds  when  they  conspicuously  intrude 
into  cultivated  fields,  meadows,  pastures,  or  the  ground  around 
dwellings.  Many  are  unattractive,  but  not  a. few  are  orna- 
mental ;  many  are  injurious,  but  some  are  truly  useful. 
White  Clover  is  an  instance  of  the  latter.  Bur  Clover  (JMe- 
dicago  denticulatd)  is  in  California  very  valuable  as  food  for 
cattle  and  sheep,  and  very  injurious  by  the  damage  which  the 
burs  cause  to  wool.  In  tbe  United  States,  and  perhaps  in 
most  parts  of  the  world,  a  large  majority  of  the  weeds  are 
introduced  plants,  brought  into  the  country  directly  or  indi- 
rectly by  man.  Some  such  as  Dandelion,  Yarrow,  and  prob- 
ably the  common  Plantain  and  the  common  Purslane,  are 
importations  as  weeds,  although  the  species  naturally  occupy 
some  part  of  the  country. 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xviii.  161.     (1879.) 


PERTINACITY  AND  PREDOMINANCE  OF  WEEDS.     235 

Why  weeds  are  so  pertinaceous  and  aggressive,  is  too  large 
and  loose  a  question  :  for  any  herb  whatever  when  success- 
fully aggressive  beeomes  a  weed  ;  and  the  reasons  of  predom- 
inance may  be  almost  as  diverse  as  the  weeds  themselves. 
But  we  may  inquire,  whether  weeds  have  any  common  char- 
acteristic which  may  give  them  advantage,  and  why  tin- 
greater  part  of  the  weeds  of  the  United  States,  and  probably 
of  similar  temperate  countries,  should  be  foreigners. 

As  to  the  second  question,  this  is  strikingly  the  case 
throughout  the  Atlantic  side  of  temperate  North  America,  in 
which  the  weeds  have  mainly  come  from  Europe  ;  but  it  is 
not  so,  or  hardly  so,  west  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  region  of 
prairies  and  plains.  So  that  the  answer  we  are  accustomed  to 
give  must  be  to  a  great  extent  the  true  one,  namely,  that,  as 
the  district  here  in  which  weeds  from  the  Old  World  prevail 
was  naturally  forest-clad,  there  were  few  of  its  native  herbs 
which,  if  they  could  bear  the  exposure  at  all,  were  capable  >f 
competition  on  cleared  land  with  emigrants  from  the  OKI 
World.  It  may  be  said  that  these  same  European  weeds, 
here  prepotent,  had  survived  and  adapted  themselves  to  the 
change  from  forest  to  cleared  land  in  Europe,  and  therefore 
our  forest-bred  herbs  might  have  d  ...  .>^  same  thing  here. 
But  in  the  first  place  fcba  uange  must  have  been  far  more 
sudden  here  th-ui  in  Europe  ;  and  in  the  next  place,  we  sup- 
pose that  most  of  the  herbs  in  question  never  were  Indigenous 
to  the  originally  forest-covered  regions  of  the  Old  World; 
but  rather,  as  western  and  northern  Europe  became  agricul- 
tural and  pastoral,  these  plants  came  with  the  husbandmen 
and  the  flocks,  or  followed  them,  from  the  woodless  or 
sparsely  wooded  regions  farther  east  where  they  originated. 
This,  however,  will  not  hold  for  some  of  them,  such  as  Dan- 
delion, Yarrow,  and  Ox-eye  Daisy.  It  may  be  said  thai  our 
weeds  might  have  come  to  a  considerable  extent  from  the 
bordering  more  open  districts  on  the  west  and  south.  But 
there  was  little  opportunity  until  recently,  as  the  Bettlemenl 
of  the  country  began  on  the  eastern  border;  yet  a  certain 
number  of  our  weeds  appear  to  have  been  thus  derived  : 
for    instance,   Mollugo    verticillata,    Erigeron    Canadense, 


236  ESS  A  YS. 

Xanthium,  Ambrosia  artemisicefolia,  Verbena  hastata,  V. 
urticifolia,  etc.,  Veronica  peregrina,  Solamim  Carolinense, 
various  species  of  Amarantus  and  Euphorbia,  Panicum  capil- 
Id re,  etc.  Of  late,  and  in  consequence  of  increased  commu- 
nication with  the  Mississippi  region  and  beyond  —  especially 
by  railroads  —  other  plants  are  coming  into  the  eastern 
States  as  weeds,  step  by  step,  by  somewhat  rapid  strides ; 
such  as  Dysodia  chrysanthemoides,  Matricaria  discoidea, 
and  Artemisia  biennis.  Fifty  years  ago  Rudbeckia  hirta, 
which  flourished  from  the  Alleghanies  westward,  was  unknown 
farther  east.  Now  since  twenty  years,  it  is  an  abundant  and 
conspicuous  weed  in  grass-fields  throughout  the  eastern  States, 
having  been  accidentally  desimated  with  Red  Clover  seed 
from  the  western  States. 

There  are  also  native  American  weeds,  doubtless  indigenous 
to  the  region,  such  as  Asclepias  Cornuti,  Antennaria  mar- 
garitacea,  and  A.  plantaginifolia,  and  in  enriched  soils  Phy- 
tolacca deca?idra,  which  have  apparently  become  strongly  ag- 
gressive under  changed  conditions.  These  are  some  of  the 
instances  which  may  show  that  predominance  is  not  in  conse- 
quence of  change  of  country  and  introduction  to  new  soil. 

In  many  cases  it  is  e^cy  to  explain  why  a  plant,  once  intro- 
duced, should  take  a  strong  and  ;^^sistent  hold  and  spread 
rapidly.  In  others  we  discern  nothing  m  fhe  plant  itself 
which  should  give  it  advantage.  Lespedeza  striata  is  a  small 
and  insignificant  annual,  with  no  obvious  provision  for  dis- 
semination. It  is  a  native  of  China  and  Japan.  In  some  un- 
explained way  it  reached  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and  was  first 
noticed  about  thirty-five  years  ago  ;  it  has  spread  rapidly 
since,  especially  over  old  fields  and  along  roadsides,  and  it  is 
now  very  abundant  up  to  Virginia  and  Tennessee,  throughout 
the  middle  and  upper  districts,  reaching  even  to  the  summits 
of  the  mountains  of  moderate  elevation.  In  the  absence  of 
better  food  it  is  greedily  eaten  by  cattle  and  sheep.  The 
voiding  by  them  of  undigested  seeds  must  be  the  means  of 
dissemination ;  but  one  cannot  well  understand  why  it  should 
spread  so  widely  and  rapidly,  and  take  such  complete  posses- 
sion of  the  ground.  It  is  one  of  the  few  weeds  which  are 
accounted  a  blessing. 


PERTINACITY  AND  PREDOMINANCE  OF  WEEDS.     237 

Professor  Claypole,  of  Antioch  College,  Ohio,  has  recently 
contributed  to  the  "  Third  Report  of  the  Montreal  Horticul- 
tural Society  "  (1877-8)  an  interesting-  essay,  u  On  the  Migra- 
tion of  Plants  from  Europe  to  America,  with  an  Attempt  to 
explain  Certain  Phenomena  connected  therewith."  The  phe- 
nomena which  he  would  explain  are  the  abundant  migration 
of  numerous  weeds  from  Europe  to  the  shore  of  North  Amer- 
ica, while  others  fail  to  come,  and  the  general  failure  of  North 
American  weeds  to  invade  Europe.  We  have  offered  a  fairly 
good  explanation  of  the  first.  And  Prof essor  Claypole  goes 
far  toward  explaining  the  second  when  he  notes  that  seed  is 
(or  formerly  was)  mainly  brought  from  the  Old  World  to  the 
New,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  cattle  and  other  emigra- 
tion ;  that  the  cooler  and  shorter  summer  of  the  north  of  Eu- 
rope renders  the  ripening  of  some  seed  precarious,  etc.  lie 
does  not  mention  the  fact  that  American  plants  by  chance 
reaching  Europe  have  to  compete  with  a  vegetable  world  in 
comparatively  stable  equilibrium  of  its  species,  while  Euro- 
pean weeds  coming  —  or  which  formerly  came  —  to  the 
United  States  found  the  course  of  nature  disturbed  by  man 
and  new-made  fields  for  which  they  could  compete  with  ad- 
vantage. But  this  ingenious  hypothesis  is  that  weeds  have  a 
peculiarly  "  plastic  nature,  one  capable  of  being  moulded  by 
and  to  the  new  surroundings,"  by  which  the  plant  w*  ere  long 
adapts  itself,  if  the  change  is  not  too  great  or  sudden,  to  its 
new  situation,  takes  out  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  continues  in 
the  strictest  sense  a  weed  ;  that  the  plants  of  the  European 
flora  possess  more  of  this  plasticity,  are  less  unyielding  in 
their  constitution,  can  adapt  themselves  more  readily  to  new 
surroundings,"  and  that  it  is  "the  lack  of  this  plasticity  in 
the  American  flora  which  incapacitates  it  from  securing  a  foot- 
hold and  obtaining  a  living  in  the  different  conditions  of  the 
New  World  ;  "  that  although  "in  the  Miocene  era  the  Euro- 
pean and  American  floras  were  very  much  alike."*  yel  "  since 
that  era  the  European  flora  has  been  vastly  altered,  while  the 
American  flora  still  retains  a  Miocene  aspect,  and  is  therefore 
the  elder  of  the  two  ;  that  this  long  persistence  of  type  in 
the  American  flora  may  have  induced,  by  habit,  a  rigidity  or 


238  ESS  A  YS. 

indisposition  to  change  ;  "  that  "  the  European  is  thus  better 
able  to  adapt  itself  to  the  strange  climate  and  conditions  — 
that  is  to  emigrate  —  than  the  American  :  and  thus,  being: 
more  plastic  or  adaptable,  it  succeeds  in  the  New  World, 
while  the  less  adaptable  American  flora  fails  in  the  Old 
World." 

So  far  as  we  know,  the  greater  plasticity  of  European 
as  compared  with  American  plants  is  purely  hypothetical. 
"  More  plastic  "  would  mean  of  greater  variability,  which,  if 
true,  might  be  determined  by  observation.  Because  Europe 
once  had  more  species  or  types  in  common  with  North  Amer- 
ica than  it  now  has,  it  does  not  seem  to  follow  that  the  former 
has  "a  younger  plant-life,"  or  that  its  existing  plants  are  more 
recent  than  those  of  the  American  flora.  And  as  already  in- 
timated, so  refined  an  hypothesis  is  hardly  necessary  for  the 
probable  explanation  of  the  predominance  of  Old  World  weeds 
in  the  Atlantic  United  States. 

Mr.  Henslow,  in  his  remarkable  memoir,  "  On  the  Self- 
Fertilization  of  Plants,"  derives  from  different  but  equally 
theoretical  premises  an  opposite  conclusion,  —  namely,  that 
weeds  or  intrusive  and  dominant  plants  in  general,  and  of 
great  emigrating  capabilities,  have  "  a  longer  ancestral  life- 
history  than  their  less  aggressive  relatives."  He  also  main- 
tains that  weeds,  and  plants  best  fitted  for  domination  in  the 
manner  of  weeds,  possess  a  common  characteristic  to  which 
this  dominance  may  be  attributed,  namely,  that  they  are  in 
general  self-fertilized  plants.  A  rapid  generalizer  might  find 
confirmation  of  this  in  the  converse,  which  is  obviously  true, 
that  plants  with  blossoms  very  specially  adapted  for  cross-fer- 
tilization by  particular  insects,  and  therefore  dependent  on 
such  special  aid,  are  comparatively  local  and  unaggressive  ; 
yet  some  of  these  are  widely  distributed.  It  will  also  be 
understood  that  self-fertilization  may  give  advantage  to  an 
intruding  plant  at  the  outset  by  enabling  an  exceptionally 
well-fitted  individual  to  initiate  a  favored  race.  And  self- 
fertilization,  with  its  sureness,  would  always  be  most  advan- 
tageous unless  cross-fertilization  brings  some  compensatory 
advantage  greater  on  the  whole  than  that  of  immediate  sure- 
ness to  fertilize. 


PERTINACITY  AND  PREDOMINANCE  OF  WEEDS.     239 

But  the  test  of  the  theory  is,  whether  weeds  and  emigrating 
herbs  in  general  are  more  self-fertilizing  or  less  subject  to 
cross-fertilization  than  the  majority  of  related  plants,  and 
whether  many  or  any  of  them  are  actually  self-fertilized 
through  a  succession  of  generations.  It  seemed  to  us  that,  in 
a  limited  way,  the  weeds  which  Europe  has  given  to  North 
America  might  answer  this  question.  To  keep  within  bounds 
and  to  have  a  case  with  all  the  data  unquestionable,  we  will 
collate  the  weeds  of  European  parentage  which  evince  a  domi- 
nating character  in  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
referring  for  the  purpose  to  the  "Manual  of  Botany  of  the 
Northern  United  States"  and  Chapman's  "Flora  of  the 
Southern  States."  The  latter,  however,  adds  not  a  single 
weed  from  Europe  of  any  predominance.  AVe  include  only 
those  which  have  taken  a  strong  hold  and  become  prominent 
either  by  their  general  diffusion  over  the  area  or  by  taking- 
marked  possession  of  certain  districts.  For  examples  of  the 
latter  take  Echium  vulgare  in  Virginia,  Ranunculus  bulbosus 
and  Leontodon  autumnale  in  eastern  New  England,  and  Ge- 
nista tinctoria,  which  covers  certain  tracts  in  the  eastern  part 
of  Massachusetts,  although  nearly  unknown  elsewhere.  \\  e 
must  include  several  species  which  as  weeds  came  from  Eu- 
rope, although  they  are  probably,  some  of  them  undoubtedly, 
indigenous  to  some  part  of  the  United  Stated. 

The  following  are  the  herbaceous  plants  naturalized  from 
Europe  and  of  an  aggressive  character  in  the  Atlantic  I  nited 
States.  Herbs  of  recent  introduction,  and  those  of  however 
ancient  naturalization  which  have  not  either  spread  widely  or 
increased  greatly  over  a  considerable  district,  are  omitted. 

The  eighteen  species  in  italic  type,  nearly  half  of  them 
Grasses,  are  probably  indigenous  to  some  portions  of  North 
America.  In  some  cases  the  introduced  and  the  indigenous 
plants  have  come  into  contact. 

Ranunculus  bulbosus.  Raphanus      Raphanis-  Silene  inflate. 

Ranunculus  aoris.  tram.  Lychnis  Gitbago. 

Nasturtium  officinale.  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris.  Stellaria  media. 

Sisymbium  officinale.  Reseda  Luteola.  Portulaca  dUraoea. 

Brassica  Sinipistrum.  Saponaria  officinalis.  Malva  rotundifolia. 


240 


ESS  A  YS. 


Genista  tinctoria. 
Trifolium  arvense. 
Trifolium  agrarium. 

Trifolium  repens. 
Daucus  Carota. 
Pastinaca  sativa. 
Conium  maculatum. 
Tussilago  Farfara. 
Inula  Heleniuui 
Gnaphalium  uliginosum. 
Anthemis  Cotula. 
Achillea  Millefolium. 
Tanacetum  vulgare. 
Leucanthemuin  vulgare. 
Cirsium  arvense. 
Cirsium  laneeolatum. 
Lappa  officinalis. 
Cichorium  Intybus. 
Leontodon  autumnale. 
Taraxacum  Dens-leonis. 
Plantago  major. 
Plantago  lanceolata. 
Anagallis  arvensis. 
Verbascum  Thapsus. 
Verbascum  Blattaria. 
Linaria  vulgaris. 


Mentha  viridis. 
Mentha  piperita. 
Calamintha  Nepeta. 
Calamintha  Clinopodium. 
Nepeta  Cataria. 
Nepeta  Gleehoma. 
Marrubium  vulgare. 
Galeopsis  Tetrahit. 
Leonurus  Cardiaca. 
Laniium  amplexicaule. 
Echium  vulgare. 
Symphytum  officinale . 
Echinospermum     Lap- 

pula. 
Cynoglossum  officinale. 
Solatium  nigrum. 
Chenopodium  album. 
Chenopodium   hybri- 

dum. 
Chenopodium  Botrys. 
Polygonum  aviculare. 
Polygonum  Convolvu- 
lus. 

Ruraex  crispus. 

Rumex  sanguineus. 

Rumex  Acetosella. 


Allium  vineale. 
Alopecurus  pratensis. 
Phleum  pratense. 
Agrostis  vulgaris. 
Agrostis  alba. 
Dactylis  glomerata. 
Poa  annua. 
Poa  compressa. 
Poa  pratensis. 
Poa  trivialis. 
Eragrostis  poaeoides. 
Festuca  ovina. 
Festuca  pratensis. 
Bromus  secalinus. 
Lolium  perenne. 
Triticum  repens. 
Triticum  caninum. 
Anthoxanthum  odora- 

tum. 
Panicum  glabrum. 
Panicum  sanguinale. 
Panicum  Crus-galli. 
Setaria  glauca. 
Setaria  virdis. 


The  plants  of  this  list,  regarded  as  weeds,  are  of  very  vari- 
ous character  ;  and  several  of  them,  such  as  White  Clover 
and  most  of  the  Grasses,  where  most  dominant,  do  not  fall 
under  the  ordinary  definition  of  weeds  at  all,  but  under  that 
of  plants  useful  to  the  farmer.  Some,  like  Purslane,  are  only 
garden  weeds  ;  some  belong  to  pastures  and  meadows ;  others 
affect  roadsides.  The  fewness  of  European  corn-weeds  is 
remarkable.  Ches  and  Corn-cockle  (Lychnis  Gfiihago)  are 
the  only  ones  on  the  list.  Corn  Poppy,  Bluebottle  and  Knap- 
weed (Centaurea  Cyanus  and  C.  nigra)  and  Larkspur  are 
conspicuously  wanting ;  but  the  last  two  are  not  wholly  un- 
known in  some  parts  of  the  country. 

But  the  only  question  before  us  is,  whether  these  plants  in- 
troduced from  Europe  are  or  are  not  self-fertilized,  or  more 
habitually  so  than  others,  so  that  this  may  be  accounted  an 


PERTINACITY  AND  PREDOMINANCE  OF  WEEDS.     241 

element  of  their  predominance.  Apparently  this  question 
must  be  answered  in  the  negative.  The  question  is  not 
whether  they  are  self-fertilizable.  The  great  majority  of 
plants  are  so,  even  of  those  specially  adapted  for  intercross- 
ing. The  plants  of  this  list  appear  to  belong  to  the  juste  mi- 
lieu. Only  one  (JRumex  Acetosella)  is  completely  dioecious  ; 
a  few  are  incompletely  dioecious  or  polygamous  ;  the  two  spe- 
cies of  Plantago  are  dichogamous  to  the  extent  of  necessary 
dioicism  or  monoicism;  a  large  number  of  the  corolline  spe- 
cies are  either  proterandrous  or  proterogynous,  including  two 
or  three  auemophilous  species  ;  and  all  the  Grasses  (which 
form  the  last  quarter  of  the  list)  are  anemophilous  and  more 
or  less  dichogamous,  and  therefore  not  rarely  cross-fertilized. 
Of  those  which  are  not  anemophilous  we  notice  none  which 
are  not  habitually  visited  by  insects  (except  perhaps  (i D<ij)h<t- 
lium  uliginosuni),  and  which  therefore  are  almost  as  likely  to 
be  cross-fertilized  as  close-fertilized;  while  in  not  a  few  (such 
as  the  Compositce  generally  and  most  of  the  other  Gamope- 
talctt)  the  arrangements  which  favor  intercrossing  are  explicit. 
There  is  no  cleistogamous  and  therefore  necessarily  self-fertil- 
ized plant  in  the  list,  except  Lamiuum  amplexicaule,  which 
also  cross-fertilizes  freely. 

In  California  the  prevalent  weeds  are  largely  diffe rent  from 
those  of  the  Atlantic  States,  and,  as  would  be  expected,  are 
mostly  of  indigenous  species  or  immigrants  from  South  Amer- 
ica ;  yet  the  common  weeds  of  the  Old  World,  especially  of 
southern  Europe,  are  coming  in.  The  well-established  and 
aggressive  ones,  such  as  Brassica  nigra,  SUene  Gallica,  Era- 
dium  cicutarium,  Malva  borealis,  Medicago  denticulate  Mar- 
rubium  vtdgare,  and  Avena  sterilis,  were  perhaps  introduced 
by  way  of  western  South  America.  They  are  mostly  plants 
capable  of  self-fertilization,  but  also  with  adaptations  (of  dicho- 
gamy and  otherwise)  which  must  secure  occasional  crossing. 

We  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  self-fertilization  is 
neither  the  cause  nor  a  perceptible  cause  of  the  prepotency 
of  the  European  plants  which  are  weeds  in  North  America. 

A  cursory  examination  brings  us  to  a  similar  conclusion  as 
respects  the  indigenous  weeds  of  the  Atlantic  States,  those 


242  ESSAYS. 

herbs  which  under  new  conditions,  have  propagated  most 
abundantly  and  rapidly,  and  competed  most  successfully  in 
the  strife  for  the  possession  of  fields  that  have  taken  the 
place  of  forest.  The  most  aggressive  of  these  in  the  North- 
ern States  are  Epilobium  spicatum  in  the  newest  clearings, 
which  is  dichogamous  (proterandrous)  to  a  degree  which 
practically  forbids  self-fertilization  ;  and  in  older  fields,  .4s- 
clepias  Cornuti,  which  is  specially  adapted  for  cross-fertiliza- 
tion by  flying  insects  ;  Antennaria  plantaginifolia  and  A. 
margaritacea,  which  are  dioecious  ;  and  next  to  these  per- 
haps the  two  wild  Strawberries,  then  Erigeron  annuum  and 
E.  strigosum,  with  certain  Asters  and  Goldenrods,  all  insect- 
visited  and  dichogamous,  and  Verbena  hastata,  V.  urticifolia, 
etc.,  the  frequent  natural  hybridization  of  which  testifies  to 
habitual  intercrossing. 

Those  who  suppose  that  only  conspicuous  or  odorous  flowers 
are  visited  by  flying  insects  should  see  how  bees  throng  the 
small,  greenish,  and  to  us  odorless  blossoms  of  Ampelopsis  or 
Virginia  Creeper  and  of  its  Japanese  relative. 


THE  FLORA   OF  NORTH   AMERICA.1 

In  the  remarks  which  I  have  to  offer  to  this  Section,  you 
will  understand  the  word  "  Flora  "  to  be  written  with  a  capi- 
tal initial.  I  am  to  speak  of  the  attempts  made  in  mv  nun 
day,  and  still  making,  to  provide  our  botanists  with  a  com- 
pendious systematic  account  of  the  phaenogamous  vegetation 
of  the  whole  country  which  the  American  Association  calls 
its  own. 

I  shall  make  no  effort  to  avoid  the  personal  turn  which  my 
narrative  is  likely  to  take.  In  fact,  it  will  be  seen  that  I 
have  partly  a  personal  object  in  drawing  up  this  statement. 

Only  two  Floras  of  North  America  have  ever  been  pub- 
lished as  completed  works,  that  of  Michaux  and  that  of  Pursh. 
A  third  was  begun  (by  Dr.  Torrey,  assisted  by  a  young  man 
who  is  no  longer  young),  by  the  publication  in  the  summer  of 
1838  of  a  first  fasciculus ;  the  first  volume  of  700  pages  was 
issued  two  years  afterward ;  and  500  pages  of  the  second  vol- 
ume appeared  in  1841  and  in  the  early  part  of  1843.  The 
time  for  continuing  it  in  the  original  form  has  long  ago  passed 
by.  Its  completion  in  the  form  in  which  I  have  undertaken 
it  anew  is  precarious.  Precarious  in  the  original  sense  of  the 
word,  for  it  is  certainly  to  be  prayed  for:  precarious,  too.  in 
the  current  sense  of  the  word  as  being  uncertain  :  yet  not  so, 
according  to  an  accepted  definition,  namely:  "uncertain,  be- 
cause depending  upon  the  will  of  another;  "  for  it  is  not  our 
will  but  our  power  that  is  in  question;  and  it  is  only  by  the 
combined  powers  and  efforts  of  all  of  us  interested  in  Botany 
that  the  desired  end  can  possibly  be  attained. 

1  A  paper  read  to  the  Botanists  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  at  Montreal,  August  25,  1882. 
American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxiv.  321. 


244  ESSAYS. 

It  were  well  to  consider  for  a  moment  how  and  why  it  is 
that  a  task  which  has  twice  been  —  it  would  seem  —  easily  ac- 
complished has  now  become  so  difficult. 

The  earliest  North  American  Flora,  that  of  the  elder  Mi- 
chaux,  appeared  in  the  year  1803.  It  was  based  entirely 
upon  Michaux's  own  collections  and  observations,  does  not 
contain  any  plants  which  he  had  not  himself  gathered  or  seen, 
is  not,  therefore,  an  exhaustive  summary  of  the  botany  of  the 
country  as  then  known,  and  so  was  the  more  readily  prepared. 
Michaux  came  to  this  country  in  1785,  returned  to  France  in 
1796,  left  it  again  in  Baudin's  expedition  to  Australia  in  1800, 
and  died  of  fever  in  Madagascar  in  1802.  The  Flora  pur- 
ports to  be- edited  by  his  son,  F.  A.  Michaux,  who  signed  the 
classical  Latin  preface.  The  finish  of  the  specific  characters, 
and  especially  the  capital  detailed  characters  of  the  new  gen- 
era, reveal  the  hand  of  a  master  ;  and  tradition  has  it  that 
these  were  drawn  up  by  Louis  Claude  Richard,  who  was  prob- 
ably the  ablest  botanist  of  his  time.  This  tradition  is  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  Richard's  herbarium  (bequeathed  to 
his  son,  and  now  belonging  to  Count  Franqueville)  contains 
an  almost  complete  set  of  the  plants  described,  and  I  found 
that  the  specimens  of  Michaux  supplied  to  Willdenow's  her- 
barium at  Berlin  were  ticketed  and  sent  by  Richard.  Not 
only  the  younger  Richard  but  Kunth  also  habitually  cited  the 
new  genera  of  the  work  as  of  Richard,  and  some  others  have 
followed  this  example.  Singularly  enough,  however,  there  is 
no  reference  whatever  to  Richard  in  any  part  of  the  Flora, 
nor  in  the  elaborate  preface.  The  most  venerable  botanist 
now  living  told  me  that  there  was  a  tradition  at  Paris  that 
Richard  performed  a  similar  work  for  Persoon's  "  Synopsis 
Plantarum,"  and  that  he  declined  all  mention  of  his  name  in 
the  Synopsis  and  in  the  Flora,  because  the  two  works  —  con- 
trary to  the  French  school  —  were  arranged  upon  the  Lin- 
naean  Artificial  System.  He  had  his  wray,  and  the  tradition 
may  be  preserved  in  history ;  but  his  name  cannot  be  cited  for 
the  genera  Elytraria,  Micranthemum,  Elodea,  Stipulicida, 
Dichromena,  Oryzopsis,  Erianthus,  and  the  like.  For,  by  the 
record  these  are  of  Michaux,  "  Flora  Boreali-Americana," 
and  not  of  Richard. 


THE   FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  245 

Michaux's  explorations  extended  from  Hudson's  Bay,  which 
he  reached  by  way  of  the  Saguenay,  to  Florida,  as  far,  at 
least  as  St.  Augustine  and  Pensacola ;  he  was  the  first  botani- 
cal explorer  of  the  higher  Alleghany  Mountains,  and.  cross- 
ing these  mountains  in  Tennessee,  he  readied  the  Mississippi 
in  Illinois,  and  was  as  far  south  as  Natchez.  His  original 
itinerary,  which  I  once  consulted,  is  preserved  by  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  at  Philadelphia,  to  which  it  was 
presented  by  his  son.  It  ought  to  be  printed.  That  little 
journal  shows  that  it  was  not  Michaux's  fault  that  the  first 
Flora  of  North  America  was  restricted  to  the  district  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  He  had  a  scheme  for  crossing  the  con- 
tinent to  the  Pacific.  He  warmly  solicited  the  government  at 
Washington  to  undertake  such  an  exploration,  and  offered  to 
accompany  it  as  naturalist.  This  may  have  been  the  germ 
or  the  fertilizing  idea  of  the  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark, 
which  was  sent  out  a  few  years  afterward  by  Jefferson,  to 
whom,  if  I  rightly  remember,  Michaux  addressed  his  enter- 
prising proposal. 

Leaving  out  the  Cryptogams  of  lower  rank  than  the  Ferns. 
we  find  that  the  Flora  of  Michaux,  published  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century,  say  eighty  years  ago,  contains  1530 
species,  in  528  genera.  No  very  formidable  number;  ;i-  to 
species  (speaking  without  a  count)  little  over  half  as  many  as 
are  described  in  my  "  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern 
States,"  which  covers  less  than  half  of  Michaux's  area. 

Eleven  years  afterward,  namely,  in  the  year  1814  (the 
preface  is  dated  December,  1813),  appeared  the  second  Flora 
of  North  America,  namely,  the  "Flora  America?  Septentrio- 
nalis,"  by  Frederick  Pursh.  This  was  not  confined  to  the 
author's  own  collections,  but  aimed  at  completeness,  or  to  give 
"a  systematic  arrangement  and  description  of  the  plant-  of 
North  America,  containing,  besides  what  have  been  described 
by  preceding  authors,  many  new  and  rare  species,  collected 
during  twelve  years'  travels  and  residence  in  that  conntry." 

It  appears  that  Pursh  was  born  at  Tobolsk,  in  Siberia,  of 
what  parentage  we  do  not  know.  lie  himself  tells  us,  in  his 
preface,  that  he  was  educated  in  Dresden,  and  that  he  came 


246  ESS  A  YS. 

to  this  country  —  to  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  —  at  the  close 
of  the  last  century,  when  he  must  have  been  only  twenty-five 
years  old.  He  was  able  to  make  the  acquaintance  not  only 
of  Muhlenberg,  who  survived  until  1815,  and  of  William 
Bartram,  who  died  in  1823,  but  also  of  the  veteran,  Humphrey 
Marshall,  who  died  in  1805.  His  early  and  principal  patron 
was  Dr.  Benjamin  Smith  Barton,  who  supplied  the  means  for 
most  of  the  travels  which  he  was  able  to  undertake,  and  who, 
as  Pursh  states,  "  for  some  time  previous  had  been  collecting 
materials  for  an  American  Flora."  Pursh's  personal  explora- 
tions were  not  extensive.  From  1802  till  1805  he  was  in 
charge  of  the  gardens  of  William  Hamilton,  near  Philadelphia. 
In  the  spring  of  the  latter  year,  as  he  says,  he  "  set  out  for 
the  mountains  and  western  territories  of  the  southern  States, 
beginning  at  Maryland  and  extending  to  the  Carolinas  (in 
which  tract  the  interesting  high  mountains  of  Virginia  and 
Carolina  took  my  particular  attention),  returning  late  in  the 
autumn  through  the  lower  countries  along  the  sea-coast  to 
Philadelphia."  But,  in  tracing  his  steps  by  his  collections  1 
and  by  other  indications,  it  appears  that  he  did  not  reach  the 
western  borders  of  Virginia  nor  cross  its  southern  boundary 
into  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina.  The  Peaks  of  Otter 
and  Salt-pond  Mountain  (now  Mountain  Lake)  were  the 
highest  elevations  which  he  attained.  Pursh's  preface  con- 
tinues :  "  The  following  season,  1806,  I  went  in  like  manner 
over  the  northern  States,  beginning  with  the  mountains  of 
Pennsylvania  and  extending  to  those  of  New  Hampshire  (in 
which  tract  I  traversed  the  extensive  and  highly  interesting 
country  of  the  Lesser  and  Great  Lakes),  and  returning  as 
before  by  the  sea-coast."  The  diary  of  this  expedition,  found 
among  Dr.  Barton's  papers  and  collection  in  possession  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  has  recently  been  printed  by 
the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Potts  James.  It  shows  that  the  journey 
was  not  as  extended  or  as  thorough  as  would  be  supposed  ; 
that  it  was  from  Philadelphia  directly  north  to  the  Pokono 
Mountains,  thence  to  Onondaga,  and  to  Oswego,  —  the  only 
point  on  the  Great  Lakes  reached,  —  thence  back  to  Utica, 
1  In  herb.  Barton  and  herb.  Lambert. 


THE  FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  247 

down  the  Mohawk  Valley  to  Saratoga,  and  north  to  the  upper 
part  of  Lake  Champlain  and  to  the  lesser  Green  Mountains 
in  the  vicinity  of  Rutland,  but  not  beyond.  Discouraged  by 
the  lateness  of  the  season,  and  disheartened  —  as  he  had  all 
along  been  —  by  the  failure  and  insufficiency  of  remittances 
from  his  patron,  Pursh  turned  back  from  Rutland  on  the  22d 
of  September,  reached  New  York  on  the  1st  of  October,  and 
Philadelphia  on  the  5th.  The  next  year  (1807)  Pursh  took 
charge  of  the  Botanic  Garden  which  Dr.  Hosack  had  formed 
at  New  York  and  afterward  sold  to  the  State,  which  soon 
made  it  over  to  Columbia  College.1  In  1810,  he  made 
a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies  for  the  recovery  of  his  health. 
Returning  in  the  autumn  of  1811,  he  landed  at  Wiscasset,  in 
Maine,  "had  an  opportunity  of  visiting  Professor  Peck  of 
Cambridge  College,  near  Boston,"  and  of  seeing  the  alpine 
plants  which  Peck  had  collected  on  the  White  Mountains.? 
At  the  end  of  the  latter  year  or  early  in  1812  he  went  to 
England  with  his  collections  and  notes ;  and  at  the  close  of 
1813,  under  the  auspices  of  Lambert,  he  produced  his  Flora, 
consulting,  the  while,  the  herbaria  of  Clayton,  Pallas,  Plu- 
kenet,  Catesby,  Morison,  Sherard,  Walter,  and  that  of  Banks. 
Evidently  such  consultations  and  the  whole  study  must  have 

1  Expecting,  no  doubt,  that  it  would  be  kept  up.  Bui  the  Elgin  Bo- 
tanic Garden  was  soon  discontinued.  It  occupied  the  block  of  ground 
now  covered  by  the  buildings  of  the  College,  and  the  surrounding  tract  — 
now  so  valuable  —  from  which  the  college  derives  an  ample  revenue. 
Noblesse  oblige,  and  it  maybe  expected  that  the  College,  bo  enriched,  will, 
before  long,  provide  itself  with  a  botanical  professorship,  and  see  to  the 
careful  preservation  and  maintenance  of  the  precious  Torrey  Herbarium, 
which  it  possesses  along  with  other  subsidiary  herbaria. 

2  It  is  at  Wiscasset,  therefore,  that  Pursh's  " Plantago  cucullata,  Lam. 
...  in  wet  rocky  situations,  Canada  and  Province  of  Main.."  [a  to  be 
sought.  Mr.  Pringle  has  recently  found  the  related  /'.  CornuH  (which 
may  be  the  plant  meant),  in  Lower  Canada,  not  far  from  the  other  Bide 
of  Maine. 

It  must  have  been  in  Professor  Peck's  herbarium  (no  longer  extant  >, 
that  Pursh  saw  what  he  took  to  be  Alchemilla  alpina,  which  he  marks 
"  v.  s."  and  refers  to  from  memory  only,  probably  mistakenly.  For  il 
has  not  since  been  detected  either  in  Vermont  or  New  Hampshire,  or 
anywhere  in  North  America  ;  and  Pursh's  Journal  makes  it  certain  that 
he  did  not  reach  any  alpine  region  in  the  Green  Mountains. 


248  ESS  A  YS. 

been  rapid.  The  despatch  is  wonderful.  One  can  hardly 
understand  the  ground  of  the  statement  made  by  Lambert  to 
my  former  colleague,  Dr.  Torrey,  that  he  was  obliged  to  shut 
Pursh  up  in  his  house  in  order  to  keep  him  at  his  work. 

I  know  not  how  Pursh  was  occupied  for  the  next  four  years, 
nor  when  he  came  to  Canada.  But  he  died  here  at  Montreal, 
in  1820,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-six.  More  is  probably 
known  of  him  here.  If  I  rightly  remember,  his  grave  has 
been  identified,  and  a  stone  placed  upon  it  inscribed  to  his 
memory.1  A  tradition  has  come  down  to  us  —  and  it  is  partly 
confirmed  by  a  statement  which  Lambert  used  to  make,  in 
reference  to  the  vast  quantity  of  beer  he  had  to  furnish  during 
the  preparation  of  the  Flora  —  that,  in  his  latter  days,  our 
predecessor  was  given  to  drink,  and  that  his  days  were  thereby 
shortened. 

In  Pursh's  Flora  we  begin  to  have  plants  from  the  Great 
Plains,  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  Pacific  coast,  although 
the  collections  were  very  scanty.  The  most  important  one 
which  fell  into  Pursh's  hands  was  that  of  about  150  specimens, 
gathered  by  Lewis  and  Clark  on  their  homeward  journey  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River.  A  larger  collection,  more 
leisurely  made  on  the  outward  journey,  was  lost.  Menzies  in 
Vancouver's  voyage  had  botanized  on  the  Pacific  coast,  both 
in  California  and  much  farther  north.  Some  of  his  plants 
were  seen  by  Pursh  in  the  Banksian  herbarium,  and  taken 
up.  I  may  here  say  that  in  the  winter  of  1838-39  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  venerable  Menzies, 
then  about  ninety-five  years  old. 

In  the  Supplement,  Pursh  was  able  to  include  a  considerable 

1  In  the  Canadian  Naturalist,  Principal  Dawson  gives  a  brief  account 
of  the  transference  of  the  remains  of  Pursh  from  a  grave-yard  below 
Montreal,  in  which  they  were  interred,  to  the  beautiful  Mount  Royal 
Cemetery,  where  they  rest  in  a  lot  purchased  for  the  purpose  and  under 
a  neat  and  durable  granite  monument,  provided  by  the  naturalists  of 
Montreal  and  their  friends.  A  small  company  of  botanists,  led  by  Dr. 
Dawson,  visited  the  spot  shortly  after  the  reading  of  this  paper.  We 
learned  that  Pursh  had  botanized  largely  in  Canada,  in  view  of  a  Canadian 
Flora,  and  that  his  collections  were  consumed  by  a  fire  at  Quebec  shortly 
before  his  death,  to  his  extreme  discouragement. 


THE  FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  249 

number  of  species,  collected  by  Bradbury  on  the  upper  Mis- 
souri, in  what  was  then  called  Upper  Louisiana,  —  much  to 
the  discontent  of  Nuttall,  who  was  in  that  region  at  the  same 
time,  and  who,  indeed,  partly  and  imperfectly  anticipated 
Pursh  in  certain  cases,  through  the  publication  by  the  Prasers 
of  a  catalogue  of  some  of  the  plants  collected  by  Nuttall. 

To  come  now  to  the  extent  of  Pursh's  Flora,  published 
nearly  sixty-nine  years  ago.  It  contains  740  genera  of  Phaen- 
ogamous  and  Filicoid  plants,  and  3076  species,  — just  about 
double  the  number  of  species  contained  in  Michaux's  Flora 
of  eleven  years  before. 

I  must  omit  all  mention  of  more  restricted  works,  even  Bach 
as  Nuttall's  "  Genera  of  North  American  Plants,"  which  came 
only  four  years  after  Pursh's  Flora;  also  the  "  Flora  Boreali- 
Americana"  of  Sir  William  Hooker,  which  began  in  1829, 
but  was  restricted  to  British  America.  I  cannot  say  how  early 
it  was  that  my  revered  master,  Dr.  Torrey,  conceived  the  idea 
of  the  Flora  which  he  at  length  undertook.  But  he  once  told 
me  that  he  had  invited  Nuttall  to  join  him  in  the  production 
of  such  a  work,  and  that  Nuttall  declined.  This  must  have 
been  as  early  as  the  year  1832,  that  is,  half  a  century  ago. 
My  correspondence  with  Dr.  Torrey  began  in  the  summer  of 
1830,  when  I  was  a  young  medical  student,  and  three  or  four 
years  afterward  I  joined  him  at  New  York  and  became,  for 
a  short  time,  his  assistant,  for  all  the  rest  of  his  life,  hifl 
botanical  colleague.  He  was  very  much  occupied  with  his 
duties  as  professor,  chiefly  of  chemistry;  he  had  not  yet  aban- 
doned the  idea  of  completing  his  "  Flora  of  the  Northern  and 
Middle  States,"  the  first  volume  of  which  was  finished  in 
1824,  while  yet  free  from  all  professional  cares.  Although 
working  in  the  direction  of  the  larger  undertaking,  the  "  Blora 
of  North  America"  did  not  assume  definite  shape  before  the 
year  1835.  I  believe  that  some  of  the  first  actually-prepared 
manuscript  for  it  was  written  by  myself  in  that  or  the  follow- 
ing year.  I  was  then  and  for  a  long  time  expecting  to  accom- 
pany the  South  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  as  originally 
organized  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Ap  Catesby 
Jones,  but  which  was  subject  to  long  delay  and  many  vicissi- 


250  ESSAYS. 

tudes  ;  during  which,  having  plentiful  leisure,  I  tried  my  'pren- 
tice hand  upon  some  of  the  earlier  natural  orders.  Before 
the  expedition,  as  modified,  was  ready  to  sail,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Wilkes,  I  had  accepted  Dr.  Torrey's  propo- 
sal that  I  should  be  his  associate  in  the  work  upon  which  I 
had  made  a  small  beginning  as  a  volunteer.  Two  parts,  or 
half,  of  the  first  volume  (360  pages),  of  this  Flora,  were 
printed  and  issued  in  July  and  October,  1838. 

It  was  thought  at  first,  in  all  simplicity,  that  the  whole  task 
could  be  done  at  something  like  this  rate.  But,  apart  from 
other  considerations,  it  soon  became  clear  that  there  had  been 
no  proper  identification  of  the  foundation-species  of  the  earlier 
botanists,  from  Linnaeus  downward  ;  and  that  our  Flora  could 
not  go  on  satisfactorily  without  this.  Dr.  Torrey  had,  indeed, 
some  years  before,  made  a  hasty  visit  to  Hooker  at  Glasgow, 
to  London,  and  to  Paris ;  but  the  taking  of  a  few  notes  upon 
some  particular  plants  in  the  herbaria  of  Hooker,  Lambert, 
and  Michaux,  and  the  acquisition,  from  Hooker,  of  a  good  set 
of  the  Arctic  plants  of  the  British  explorers,  was  about  all 
that  had  been  done.  I  proposed  to  attempt  something  more  ; 
so,  taking  advantage  of  a  favorable  opportunity,  I  sailed  for 
Liverpool  in  November,  1838,  and  devoted  a  good  part  of  the 
ensuing  year  to  the  examination  of  the  principal  herbaria, 
which  I  need  not  here  specify,  in  Scotland  (where  the  impor- 
tant one  of  Sir  William  Hooker  still  remained),  England, 
France,  Switzerland,  and  Germany,  namely  those  which  con- 
tained the  specimens  upon  which  most  of  the  then-published 
North  American  species  had  been  directly  or  indirectly 
founded,  especially  those  of  Linnaeus  and  Gronovius,  of 
Walter,  of  Aiton's  "  Hortus  Kewensis,"  Michaux,  Wildenow, 
Pursh,  and  the  later  ones  of  De  Candolle  and  Hooker. 

After  my  return  the  work  made  good  progress ;  the  remain- 
ing half  of  the  first  volume  was  brought  out  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  1840,  and  by  the  spring  of  1843  the  five  hundred 
pages  of  the  second  volume,  mostly  occupied  by  the  vast  order 
Compositce,  had  been  issued.  But  meanwhile  I  had  in  my 
turn  to  assume  professorial  duties  and  incident  engagements, 
—  with  the  result  that,  although  the  study  of  North  Ameri- 


THE  FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  251 

can  plants  was  at  no  time  pretermitted,  either  by  Dr.  Torrey 
while  he  lived,  or  by  myself,  we  were  unable  to  continue  the 
publication  during  my  associate's  lifetime  ;  and  it  was  only 
recently,  in  the  spring  of  1878,  that  I  succeeded  in  bringing 
out,  in  a  changed  form,  another  instalment  of  the  work,  com- 
pleting the  Gamopetalce. 

In  the  interval  I  had  made  two  year-long  visits  to  Europe 
for  botanical  investigation,  the  first  partly  relating  to  the  bot- 
any of  the  South  Pacific,  the  second  wholly  in  view  of  the 
North  American  flora.  And  since  this  last  publication  still 
another  visit  —  the  fourth  and  we  may  suppose  the  last —  of 
the  same  character  and  the  same  duration,  has  been  success- 
fully accomplished. 

The  serious  question,  in  which  we  are  all  concerned,  arises, 
whether  this  work  can  be  carried  through  to  completion,  and 
the  older  parts  (wholly  out  of  print  and  out  of  date),  reelabo- 
rated,  —  I  will  not  say  by  my  hands,  but  in  my  time,  or  soon 
enough  to  render  the  whole  a  reasonably  full  and  homogene- 
ous representation  of  the  North  American  flora,  as  known  in 
this  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  it  brings  us 
to  consider  why  the  undertaking  to  which  so  much  time  has 
been  devoted  should  be  so  slow  of  accomplishment. 

If  this  slowness  is  a  constant  wonder  and  disappointment  to 
most  people  interested  in  the  matter,  I  can  only  add  that  it  is 
hardly  less  so  to  myself.  It  is  a  constant  surprise  —  if  one 
may  so  say  —  that  the  work  does  not  get  on  faster. 

Of  course  the  undertaking  has  become  more  and  more  for- 
midable with  the  enlargement  of  geographical  boundaries  and 
of  the  number  of  species  discovered.  As  to  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  species  to  be  treated,  we  have  by  no  means  yet 
reached  the  end.  The  area,  that  of  our  continent  down  to  the 
Mexican  line,  we  trust  is  definitely  fixed,  at  Least  for  our  day. 
And  since  we  cannot^be  rid  of  the  peninsula  and  keys  of  Flor- 
ida, which  entails  upon  us  a  considerable  number  of  tropical 
species,  mostly  belonging  to  the  West  Indies  —  the  southern 
boundary  is  now  as  natural  a  one  as  we  can  have. 

The  area  which  Pursh's  Flora  covered  was,  we  may  say,  the 
United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi,  with  Canada  to  Labia- 


252  ESS  A  YS. 

dor,  to  which  was  added  a  couple  of  hundred  of  species  known 
to  him  outside  these  limits  northwestward. 

Torrey  and  Gray's  Flora  took  the  initiative  in  annexing 
Texas,  ten  years  before  its  political  incorporation  into  the 
Union  ;  although  the  only  plants  we  then  possessed  from  it 
were  certain  portions  of  Drummond's  collections.  California 
was  also  annexed  at  the  same  time,  on  account  of  Douglas's 
collections,  and  those  of  Nuttall,  who  had  just  returned  from 
his  visit  to  the  western  coast,  which  he  reached  by  a  tedious 
journey  across  the  continent  over  ground  in  good  part  new  to 
the  botanist.  Douglas  had  already  made  remarkably  full 
collections  along  a  more  northern  line.  The  British  arctic 
explorers,  both  by  sea  and  land,  had  well  developed  the  bot- 
any of  the  boreal  regions,  and  Sir  William  Hooker  was  bring- 
ing out  the  results  in  his  Flora  of  British  America.  Of 
course  our  knowledge  of  the  whole  interior  and  western  re- 
gion was  small  indeed,  compared  with  the  present ;  and  the 
botany  of  a  vast  region  from  the  western  part  of  Texas  to  the 
Californian  coast  was  absolutely  unknown,  and  so  remained 
until  after  the  publication  of  the  Flora  was  suspended. 

As  to  the  number  of  species  which  Torrey  and  Gray  had  to 
deal  with,  I  can  only  say  that  a  rapid  count  gives  us  for  the 
first  volume  about  2200  Polypetalm  ;  that  there  are  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  species  in  the  small  orders  which  in  the  second 
volume  precede  the  Compositce  ;  and  that  there  are  of  the 
Composites  1054.  So  one  may  fairly  conclude  that  if  the 
work  had  been  pushed  on  to  completion,  say  in  the  year  1850, 
the  3076  species  of  Pursh's  Flora  in  the  year  1814  might  have 
been  just  about  doubled.  Probably  more  rather  than  less  ;  for 
if  we  reckon  from  the  number  of  the  Compositce,  and  on  the 
estimate  that  they  constitute  one-eighth  of  the  phaenogamous 
plants  of  North  America,  instead  of  6150,  there  would  have 
been  8430  species  known  in  the  year  specified. 

It  most  concerns  us  to  know  the  number  of  species  which, 
after  the  lapse  of  thirty  years  more  —  years  in  which  explora- 
tion has  been  active,  and  has  left  no  considerable  part  of  our 
great  area  wholly  unvisited  —  the  now  revived  Flora  has  to 
deal  with.     We  can  make  an  estimate  which  cannot  be  far 


THE  FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  253 

wrong.  In  the  year  1878,  my  colleague,  Mr.  Watson, 
finished  and  published  his  "  Bibliographical  Index  to  the 
Polypetalae  of  North  America,"  covering,  that  is,  the  same 
ground  as  the  first  volume  of  Torrey  and  Gray's  Flora,  com- 
pleted in  1840.  In  it  the  2200  species  of  the  latter  date  are 
increased  to  3038.  The  "  Gamopetctice  after  Composite  n  in 
the  "  Synoptical  Flora,"  brought  out  in  the  same  year,  eon- 
tains  1656  species.  The  two  together  must  make  up  half  of 
our  phaenogamous  botany,  that  is,  adding  the  increase  of  the 
last  four  years,  about  5000  species.  And  so  Mr.  Watson 
adopts  the  estimate  of  10,000  species  of  our  known  Phaeno- 
gams  and  Ferns.  My  impression  is  that  the  speeies  of  (  'om- 
positce  have  increased  at  a  rate  which,  unless  they  exceed  the 
eight  part  of  our  Phaenogams,  will  warrant  a  still  higher  esti- 
mate. The  number  of  introduced  species  of  various  orders, 
which  will  have  to  be  enumerated  and  most  of  them  described, 
is,  unhappily,  fast  increasing;1  and  new  indigenous  species 
are  almost  daily  coming  to  us  from  some  part  or  other  of  our 
wide  territory.  So  that  the  10,000  species  of  this  estimate 
may  before  long  rise  to  eleven  or  twelve  thousand.  Only  the 
experienced  botanist  can  form  a  just  idea  of  what  is  involved 
in  the  accurate  discrimination  and  proper  coordination  of 
10,000  to  12,000  species,  and  in  the  putting  of  the  results  into 
the  language  and  form  which  may  make  our  knowledge  avail- 
able to  learners  or  to  succeeding  botanists. 

Moreover,  there  is  of  late  an  embarras  des  richesses  which 
is  becoming  serious  as  respects  labor  and  time.  The  con- 
tinued and  ever  increasing  influx  of  material  to  Cambridge, 
beneficial  as  it  ever  is,  is  accountable  for  this  retardation  of 
progress  in  a  greater  degree  than  almost  any  one  would  sup- 
pose. The  herbarium,  upon  whose  materials  this  work  is 
mainly  done,  and  which  has  been,  like  the  Temple,  full  forty 
and  six  years  in  building,  has  received  the  contributions  of 
two  generations  of  botanists,  and  the  Torrey  herbarium  goes 
back  one  generation  farther.     Still  the  number  of  American 

1  I  say  "  unhappily,"  for  they  adulterate  the  natural  character  of  our 
flora,  and  raise  difficult  questions  as  to  how  much  of  introduction  and 
settlement  should  give  to  these  denizens  the  rights  of  adopted  citizens. 


254  ESS  A  YS. 

specimens  annually  coming  to  it  is  greater  than  in  most  for- 
mer years.  Apart  from  the  mere  selection  and  care  of  these, 
consider  how  in  other  ways  it  affects  the  rate  of  progress  of 
the  Flora.  The  incoming  of  additional  specimens  may  at  a 
glance  settle  doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  a  species ;  but  new 
specimens  are  as  apt  to  raise  questions  as  to  settle  them  ;  more 
commonly  they  raise  the  question  as  to  the  limitation  and 
right  definition  of  the  species  concerned,  not  rarely,  also,  that 
of  their  validity.  When  one  has  only  single  specimens  of  re- 
lated species,  the  case  may  seem  clear  and  the  definition  easy. 
The  acquisition  of  a  few  more,  from  a  different  region  or 
grown  under  different  conditions,  almost  always  calls  for  some 
reconsideration,  not  rarely  for  reconstruction.  People  gener- 
ally suppose  that  species,  and  even  genera,  are  like  coin  from 
the  mint,  or  bank  notes  from  the  printing  press,  each  with  its 
fixed  marks  and  signature,  which  he  that  runs  may  read,  or 
the  practised  eye  infallibly  determine.  But  in  fact  species 
are  judgments  —  judgments  of  variable  value,  and  often  very 
fallible  judgments,  as  we  botanists  well  know.  And  genera 
are  more  obviously  judgments,  and  more  and  more  liable  to 
be  affected  by  new  discoveries.  Judgments  formed  to-day  — 
perhaps  with  full  confidence,  perhaps  with  misgiving  —  may 
to-morrow,  with  the  discovery  of  new  materials  or  the  detec- 
tion of  some  before  unobserved  point  of  structure,  have  to  be 
weighed  and  decided  anew.  You  see  how  all  this  bears  upon 
the  question  of  time  and  labor  in  the  preparation  of  the  Flora 
of  a  great  country.  If  even  in  Old  Europe  the  work  has  to 
be  done  over  and  over,  how  much  more  so  in  America,  where 
new  plants  are  almost  daily  coming  to  hand.  It  is  true  that 
these  fall  into  their  ranks,  or  are  adjustable  into  their  proper 
or  probable  places,  but  not  without  painstaking  and  tedious 
examination. 

Of  our  Flora,  it  may  indeed  be  said,  that  "  If  it  were  done, 
when  't  is  done,  then  't  were  well  it  were  done  quickly." 
But  I  may  have  made  it  clear  that,  in  the  actual  state  of  the 
case,  it  is  likely  to  be  done  slowly.  At  least  you  will  under- 
stand why  thus  far  it  has  been  done  slowly.  As  to  the  future, 
if  it  depended  wholly  upon  me,  the  completion  would  obvi- 


THE  FLORA    OF  NORTH  AMERICA.  255 

ously  be  hopeless.  I  need  not  say  that  our  dependence,  for 
the  actual  elaboration,  must  largely  be  upon  associates,  upon 
the  few  who  have  the  training  and  the  vast  patience,  and  the 
access  to  herbaria  and  libraries,  requisite  for  this  kind  of 
work,  but  above  all  upon  my  associate  in  the  herbarium  at 
Cambridge,  to  whom,  being  present  with  us,  1  will  not  further 
allude. 

Of  course  we  rely,  very  much  indeed,  upon  the  continued 
cooperation  of  all  the  cultivators  of  botany  in  the  country; 
and  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  their  number  is  increasing, 
new  ones  not  less  zealous  than  the  old,  and  better  equipped, 
are  taking  the  place  of  those  that  have  passed  away,  and  Borne 
of  them  extending  their  exploration  over  the  remotest  parts 
of  the  land,  and  into  districts  where  there  is  most  to  be  dis- 
covered. All  can  help  on  the  work,  and  all  are  doing 
by  communication  of  specimens  and  of  observations.  Those 
within  the  range  of  the  published  Manuals  and  Floras  get 
on  —  or  should  get  on  —  with  only  occasional  help  from  us. 
They  should  send  us  notes  and  specimens  to  any  amount ;  but 
they  should  hot  ask  us  to  stop  to  examine  and  name  their 
plants,  except  in  special  cases,  which  we  are  always  ready 
enough  to  take  up.  Those  who  collect  in  regions  as  yet  des- 
titute of  such  advantages  may  claim  more  aid,  and  we  take 
great  pains  to  render  it :  partly  on  our  own  account,  that  we 
may  assort  their  contributions  into  their  proper  places,  partly 
for  the  encouragement  of  such  correspondents,  who  otherwise 
would  not  know  what  they  have  obtained,  and  who  naturally 
like  to  know  when  they  have  made  interesting  discoveries. 

But  the  scattered  and  piecemeal  study  of  plants  is  neither 
very  satisfactory  nor  safe.  And  it  involves  great  loss  of  time, 
besides  interrupting  that  continuity  and  concentration  of  at- 
tention which  the  proper  study  of  any  group  of  plants  de- 
mands. As  respects  the  orders  of  plants  which  are  yet  to  be 
elaborated  for  the  Flora,  and  as  to  plants  which  require  criti- 
cal study  or  minute  examination,  necessarily  consuming  much 
time,  it  is  better  to  defer  their  complete  determination  until 
the  groups  to  which  they  severally  belong  are  regularly  taken 
in  hand. 


256  ESS  A  YS. 

The  cooperation  of  all  our  botanical  associates  is  solicited 
in  this  regard,  as  a  matter  of  common  interest  and  advantage. 
For  we  are  all  equally  concerned  in  forwarding  the  prooress 
of  the  Flora  of  North  America  ;  and  we  may  confidently  ex- 
pect from  our  botanical  associates  their  sympathy,  their  for- 
bearance, and  their  continued  aid. 


GENDER  OF  NAMES   OF   VARIETIES.1 

Among  other  subordinate  questions  in  Natural-history 
nomenclature,  it  has  been  asked  whether  names  of  varieties, 
like  those  of  species,  should  conform  in  gender  to  the  genus, 
or  whether  they  may  not  as  well  conform  to  the  word  varietas, 
and  so  always  be  feminine. 

Linnaeus  introduced  the  current  practice  of  numbering  va- 
rieties by  the  letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet  a,  /?,  y,  etc.  But 
to  some  varieties,  evidently  to  the  more  important,  he  gave 
names.  These  names,  when  adjectives,  were  always  (so  far 
as  we  know)  made  to  agree  in  gender  with  the  generic  name. 
e.g.:  Vibumun  Opulus,  (3  roseum.  Asparagus  officinalis, 
a  maritimus,  (3  altilis.  Mesembryanthemum  ringers,  a  ca- 
nium,  fZfelinum. 

In  our  days  named  varieties  play  a  more  and  more  impor- 
tant part;  and  all  botanists,  as  a  rule,  appear  to  have  followed 
the  Linnean  model,  with  now  and  then  a  divergence  which  is 
readily  explained,  and  which  may  be  said  to  be  accidental, 
such  as  Ripogonum  album,  var.  leptostachya,  Benth. 

This  is  as  one  writes  "form  a  albiflora"  or  "var.  uJbi- 
flora"  a  white-flowered  form  or  variety.  But  that  this  is  not 
the  pattern  nor  the  true  construction  of  varietal  names  appears 
at  once  on  reference  to  ordinary  cases.  Thus,  for  example, 
in  "  Nastwrium  arnphibium,  a  indimsum,  DC.  Syst.,"  it  is  not 
an  individual  variety  of  the  species  that  is  meant,  but  a  name 
which  stands  in  the  same  grammatical  relation  to  Nasturtium 
that  arnphibium  does,  and  to  write  N.  arnphibium,  a  indwisa, 
is  obviously  wrong.  We  should  say  that  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence whether  the  word  variety,  or  its  abbreviation  var.  is 
expressed  or  understood.  When  the  conditions  of  the  ease 
seem  to  call  for  it,  we  should  write  N.  arnphibium,  var.  a  in- 
divisum,  just   as,  if  it   were   ever  needful,   we   might   write 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxvii.  396.     (1884.) 


258  ESSAYS. 

"  Nasturtium,  spec,  ampMbium,"  and  just  as  L.  C.  Richard 
(a  good  model),  in  Michaux's  Flora  writes,  Viburnum  den- 
tatum,  var.  a  glabellum,  ft  semi-tomentosum.  Rhus  Toxico- 
dendron, var.  a  vuhjare,  fi  quercifolium. 

The  editor  of  the  "  Gardener's  Chronicle  "  (March  22,  p. 
373),  having  put  this  kind  of  question  to  M.  Alphonse  De 
Candolle  (whom  we  should  consider  the  highest  living  au- 
thority upon  nomenclatural  matters),  understands  him  to 
reply  that  "  the  insertion  of  the  abbreviation  var.  for  varietas, 
which  is  feminine,  demands  a  feminine  termination ;  but  if 
the  word  var.  be  omitted,  then  the  rule  would  be  for  the  va- 
riety to  follow  the  specific  name  ;  "  —  meaning  probably  the 
generic  name,  for  in  one  of  the  examples  given,  Thymus 
Serpyllum,  /?  montanus,  it  does  not  follow  the  specific. 

From  this  point  of  view,  namely :  that  where  the  nature  of 
the  group  (in  this  case  variety)  is  expressed,  the  adjective 
name  should  be  feminine,  but  where  only  understood,  it 
mi^ht  be  masculine  or  neuter  —  we  must  commend  the  ed- 
itor's  closing  remark :  — 

"Perhaps  the  simplest  and  most  easily  recollected  rule 
would  be  to  make  the  varietal  name  feminine  in  all  cases, 
whether  the  var.  of  varietas,  were  expressed,  or  understood. 
This  at  least  would  be  intelligible,  and  would  conduce  to  uni- 
formity of  practice." 

It  would  also  be  logical,  and  the  logic  also  would  require 
all  specific  names  to  be  feminine ;  for  the  word  understood, 
species,  is  feminine. 

Now  we  do  not  suppose  that  M.  De  Candolle  would  tolerate 
a  double  set  of  genders  for  the  names  of  varieties.  His  doc- 
trine is  that  the  "  var.  "  should  be  discarded  and  the  Greek 
letters  only  employed,  not  only  for  numbering  the  varieties, 
but  for  designating  the  fact  that  the  name  they  are  prefixed 
to  is  a  variety. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  why  it  has  come  to  pass  that 
"  English  writers  generally  use  the  abbreviation  var.,"  and 
that  some  continental  botanical  writers  follow  the  practice. 
One  reason  is,  that  it  enables  us  to  cite  an  author's  variety  by 
its  name  without  having  to  concern  ourselves  with  its  Greek 
number,  whether  it  is  ft  or  y  or  8,  which  otherwise  we  should 


GENDER    OF  NAMES    OF  VARIETIES.  259 

have  to  attend  to.  Another  is,  that  our  sense  of  good  form 
revolts  at  beginning  sentences  and  paragraps  without  capitals. 
In  our  books,  varieties  usually  stand  in  independent  para- 
graphs. Even  in  Latin  we  do  not  like  to  begin  a  para- 
graph — 

"  a  indivisum  foliis  omnibus  integerrimis  serratisve,  non 
aut  vix  basi  auriculatis." 

In  English  we  can  still  less  abide  it.  So  we  prefix  "  Var.," 
and  either  number  our  varieties  with  Greek  letters  or,  prefer- 
entially, leave  them  out. 

But,  we  did  not  suppose  that  by  the  employment  of  the 
word  "  var.  "  we  had  interfered  with  the  relation  of  the  name 
of  the  variety  to  that  of  its  genus.  Var.  indivisum,  in  this 
case,  we  should  construe  the  phrase:  "  Varietas  cujus  nomen 
est  indivisum.  4  Var.  indivisum '  stands  on  the  same  ground 
as  '  species  amphibium.'  '  The  latter  rank  we  rarely  need  t<> 
express,  because  we  always  prefix  the  generic  name  or  its  in- 
itial. The  former  may  often  come  in  a  shape  which  renders 
the  designating  prefix  "  var.  "  necessary,  or  at  least  most  con- 
venient. 

We  may  indeed,  quite  correctly  write,  var.  albiflora,  a  white 
flowered  variety,  var.  longifolia,  a  long-leaved  variety  ;  but 
that  is  not  according  to  the  Linnean  pattern  nor  to  the  regu- 
lar practice,  nor  to  the  strict  analogy  of  the  varietal  name 
with  the  specific. 

Moreover,  if  the  gender  of  the  word  which  designates  the 
grade  of  the  name  is  to  govern  the  gender  of  the  name,  at 
least  when  expressed,  as  by  var.,  then  all  subspecies  must  be 
made  feminine.  Now  this  term  subspecies  is  coming  largely 
into  use.  And  it  has  to  be  expressed  in  every  case,  in  this 
wise  :  Ranunculus  aquatilis,  L.  Subsp.  heterophyllus.  Subsp. 
hederaceus,  etc. 

If  the  proposition  which  we  deprecate  is  adopted,  these 
names  would  have  to  be  written  heterophylla  and  hederacea 
by  an  author  who  ranked  them  as  subspecies  but  heterophyl- 
lus  and  hederaceus  by  one  who  took  them  as  varieties  and 
simply  numbered  them  by  Greek  letters.  Obviously  the 
propositions  in  the  "Gardener's  Chronicle"  has  not  been 
thoroughly  worked  out. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF    THE    NORTH    AMERICAN 
FLORA.1 

When  the  British  Association,  with  much  painstaking, 
honors  and  gratifies  the  cultivators  of  science  on  this  side  of 
the  ocean  by  meeting  on  American  soil,  it  is  but  seemly  that 
a  corresponding  member  for  the  third  of  a  century  should 
endeavor  to  manifest  his  interest  in  the  occasion  and  to  render 
some  service,  if  he  can,  to  his  fellow-naturalists  in  Section  D. 
I  would  attempt  to  do  so  by  pointing  out,  in  a  general  way, 
some  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  vegetation  of  the 
country  which  they  have  come  to  visit,  —  a  country  of  "  mag- 
nificent distances,"  but  of  which  some  vistas  may  be  had  by 
those  who  can  use  the  facilities  which  are  offered  for  enjoying 
them.  Even  to  those  who  cannot  command  the  time  for  dis- 
tant excursions,  and  to  some  who  may  know  little  or  nothing 
of  botany,  the  sketch  which  I  offer  may  not  be  altogether  un- 
interesting. But  I  naturally  address  myself  to  the  botanists 
of  the  Association,  to  those  who,  having  crossed  the  wide  At- 
lantic, are  now  invited  to  proceed  westward  over  an  almost 
equal  breadth  of  land ;  some,  indeed,  have  already  journeyed 
to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  have  returned  ;  and  not  a  few,  it  is 
hoped,  may  accept  the  invitation  to  Philadelphia,  where  a 
warm  welcome  awaits  them  —  warmth  of  hospitality,  rather 
than  of  summer  temperature,  let  us  hope  ;  but  Philadelphia  is 
proverbial  for  both.  There  opportunities  may  be  afforded  for 
a  passing  acquaintance  with  the  botany  of  the  Atlantic  border 
of  the  United  States,  in  company  with  the  botanists  of  the 
American  Association,  who  are  expected  to  muster  in  full 
force. 

What  may  be  asked  of  me,  then,  is  to  portray  certain  out- 

1  An  Address  to  the  Botanists  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science  at  Montreal ;  read  to  the  Biological  Section,  Au- 
gust 29,  1884.  (American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxviii. 
323.) 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  261 

lines  of  the  vegetation  of  the  United  States  and  the  Canadian 
Dominion,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  Europe ;  perhaps  also  to 
touch  upon  the  causes  or  anterior  conditions  to  which  much 
of  the  actual  differences  between  the  two  floras  may  be  as- 
cribed. For,  indeed,  however  interesting  or  curious  the  facts 
of  the  case  may  be  in  themselves,  they  become  far  more  in- 
structive when  we  attain  to  some  clear  conception  of  fche  de- 
pendent relation  of  the  present  vegetation  to  a  preceding  state 
of  things,  out  of  which  it  has  conic 

As  to  the  Atlantic  border  on  which  we  stand,  probably  the 
first  impression  made  upon  the  botanist  or  other  observer  coin- 
ing from  Great  Britain  to  New  England  or  Canadian  shores, 
will  be  the  similarity  of  what  he  here  finds  with  what  he  left 
behind.  Among  the  trees  the  White  Birch  and  the  Chestnut 
will  be  identified,  if  not  as  exactly  the  same,  yet  with  only 
slight  differences  —  differences  which  may  be  said  to  be  no 
more  essential  or  profound  than  those  in  accent  and  intona- 
tion between  the  British  speech  and  that  of  the  k'  Americans/* 
The  differences  between  the  Beeches  and  Larches  of  the  two 
countries  are  a  little  more  accentuated;  and  still  more  those 
of  the  Hornbeams,  Elms,  and  the  nearest  resembling  Oaks. 
And  so  of  several  other  trees.  Only  as  you  proceed  westward 
and  southward  will  the  differences  overpower  the  similarities, 
which  still  are  met  with. 

In  the  fields  and  along  open  roadsides  the  likeness  seems 
to  be  greater.  But  much  of  this  likeness  is  the  unconscious 
work  of  man,  rather  than  of  Nature,  the  reason  of  which  is 
not  far  to  seek.  This  was  a  region  of  forest,  upon  which  the 
aborigines,  although  they  here  and  there  opened  patches  of 
land  for  cultivation,  had  made  no  permanent  encroachment 
Not  very  much  of  the  herbaceous  or  other  low  undergrowth 
of  this  forest  could  bear  exposure  to  the  fervid  summer's  sun  ; 
and  the  change  was  too  abrupt  for  adaptive  modification.  The 
plains  and  prairies  of  the  great  Mississippi  Valley  were  then 
too  remote  for  their  vegetation  to  compete  for  the  vacancy 
which  was  made  here  when  forest  was  changed  to  grain-fields 
and  then  to  meadow  and  pasture.  And  so  the  vacancy  came 
to  be  filled  in  a  notable  measure  by  agrestial  plants  from  En- 


262  ESSA  YS. 

rope,  the  seeds  of  which  came  in  seed-grain,  in  the  coats  and 
fleece  and  in  the  imported  fodder  of  cattle  and  sheep,  and  in 
the  various  but  not  always  apparent  ways  in  which  agricul- 
tural and  commercial  people  unwittingly  convey  the  plants 
and  animals  of  one  country  to  another.  So,  while  an  agricul- 
tural people  displaced  the  aborigines  which  the  forests  shel- 
tered and  nourished,  the  herbs,  purposely  or  accidentally 
brought  with  them,  took  possession  of  the  clearings,  and  pre- 
vailed more  or  less  over  the  native  and  rightful  heirs  to  the 
soil,  —  not  enough  to  supplant  them,  indeed,  but  enough  to 
impart  a  certain  adventitious  Old  World  aspect  to  the  fields 
and  other  open  grounds,  as  well  as  to  the  precincts  of  habita- 
tions. In  spring-time  you  would  have  seen  the  fields  of  this 
district  yellow  with  European  Buttercups  and  Dandelions, 
then  whitened  with  the  Ox-eye  Daisy,  and  at  midsummer 
brightened  by  the  cerulean  blue  of  Chicory.  I  can  hardly 
name  any  native  herbs  which  in  the  fields  and  at  the  season 
can  vie  with  these  intruders  in  floral  show.  The  common 
Barberry  of  the  Old  World  is  an  early  denizen  of  New  Eng- 
land. The  tall  Mullein,  of  a  wholly  alien  race,  shoots  up  in 
every  pasture  and  new  clearing,  accompanied  by  the  common 
Thistle,  while  another  imported  Thistle,  called  in  the  United 
States  "  the  Canada  Thistle,"  has  become  a  veritable  nui- 
sance, at  which  much  legislation  has  been  leveled  in  vain. 

According  to  tradition  the  wayside  Plantain  was  called  by 
the  American  Indian  "White-Man's  foot,"  from  its  springing 
up  wherever  that  foot  had  been  planted.  But  there  is  some 
reason  for  suspecting  that  the  Indian's  ancestors  brought  it  to 
this  continent.  Moreover  there  is  another  reason  for  surmis- 
ing that  this  long-accepted  tradition  is  fictitious.  For  there 
was  already  in  the  country  a  native  Plantain,  so  like  Plantago 
major  that  the  botanists  have  only  of  late  distinguished  it.  (I 
acknowledge  my  share  in  the  oversight.)  Possibly,  although 
the  botanists  were  at  fault,  the  aborigines  may  have  known 
the  difference.  The  cows  are  said  to  know  it.  For  a  brother 
botanist  of  long  experience  tells  me  that,  where  the  two  grow 
together,  cows  freely  feed  upon  the  undoubtedly  native  species, 
and  leave  the  naturalized  one  untouched. 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  263 

It  has  been  maintained  that  the  Inderal  and  agrestial  Old 
World  plants  and  weeds  of  cultivation  displace  the  indigenous 
ones  of  newly  settled  countries  in  virtue  of  a  strength  which 
they  have  developed  through  survival  in  the  struggle  of  ages, 
under  the  severe  competition  incident  to  their  former  migra- 
tions. And  it  does  seem  that  most  of  the  pertinacious  weeds 
of  the  Old  World  which  have  been  given  to  us  may  not  be 
indigenous  even  to  Europe,  at  least  to  western  Europe,  but 
belong  to  campestrine  or  unwooded  regions  farther  east ;  and 
that,  following  the  movements  of  pastoral  and  agricultural 
people,  they  may  have  played  somewhat  the  same  part  in  the 
once  forest-clad  western  Europe  that  they  have  been  playing 
here.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  build  much  upon  the  possibly 
fallacious  idea  of  increased  strength  gained  by  competition. 
Opportunity  may  count  for  more  than  exceptional  vigor ;  and 
the  cases  in  which  foreign  plants  have  shown  such  superiority 
are  mainly  those  in  which  a  forest-destroying  people  have 
brought  upon  newly-bared  soil  the  seeds  of  an  open-ground 
vegetation. 

The  one  marked  exception  that  I  know  of,  the  case  of  recent 
and  abundant  influx  of  this  class  of  Old  World  plants  into  a 
naturally  treeless  region,  supports  the  same  conclusion.  Our 
associate,  Mr.  John  Ball,  has  recently  called  attention  t<»  it. 
The  pampas  of  southeastern  South  America  beyond  the  Rio 
Colorado,  lying  between  the  same  parallels  of  latitude  in  the 
south  as  Montreal  and  Philadelphia  inf  the  north,  and  with 
climate  and  probably  soils  fit  to  sustain  a  varied  vegetation, 
and  even  a  fair  proportion  of  forest,  are  not  only  treeless,  but 
excessively  poor  in  their  herbaceous  flora.  The  district  lias 
had  no  trees  since  its  comparatively  recent  elevation  from  the 
sea.  As  Mr.  Darwin  long  ago  intimated  :  "  Trees  are  absent 
not  because  they  cannot  grow  and  thrive,  but  because  the  only 
country  from  which  they  could  have  been  derived  —  tropical 
and  sub-tropical  South  America  —  coidd  not  supply  Bpecies  to 
suit  the  soil  and  climate."  And  as  to  the  herbaceous  and 
frutescent  species,  to  continue  the  extract  from  Mr.  Ball's  in- 
structive paper  recently  published  in  the  Linna  an  Society's 
Journal,  u  in  a  district  raised  from  the  sea  during  the  latest 


264  ESS  A  YS. 

geological  period,  and  bounded  on  the  west  by  a  great  moun- 
tain range  mainly  clothed  with  an  alpine  flora  requiring  the 
protection  of  snow  in  winter,  and  on  the  north  by  a  warm- 
temperate  region  whose  flora  is  mainly  of  modified  sub-tropical 
origin  —  the  only  plants  that  could  occupy  the  newly-formed 
region  were  the  comparatively  few  which,  though  developed 
under  very  different  conditions,  were  sufficiently  tolerant  of 
change  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  environment.  The 
flora  is  poor,  not  because  the  land  cannot  support  a  richer  one, 
but  because  the  only  regions  from  which  a  large  population 
could  be  derived  are  inhabited  by  races  unfit  for  emigration." 

Singularly  enough,  this  deficiency  of  herbaceous  plants  is 
being  supplied  from  Europe,  and  the  incomers  are  spreading 
with  great  rapidity ;  for  lack  of  other  forest  material  even 
Apple-trees  are  running  wild  and  forming  extensive  groves. 
Men  and  cattle  are,  as  usual,  the  agents  of  dissemination. 
But  colonizing  plants  are  filling,  in  this  instance,  a  vacancy 
which  was  left  by  nature,  while  ours  was  made  by  man.  We 
may  agree  with  Mr.  Ball  in  the  opinion  that  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  intrusive  plants  have  spread  in  this  part  of  South 
America  "  is  to  be  accounted  for,  less  by  any  special  fitness 
of  the  immigrant  species,  than  by  the  fact  that  the  ground  is 
to  a  great  extent  unoccupied." 

The  principle  applies  here  also  ;  and  in  general,  that  it  is 
opportunity  rather  than  specially  acquired  vigor  that  has 
given  Old  World  we%ds  an  advantage  may  be  inferred  from 
the  behavior  of  our  weeds  indigenous  to  the  country,  the 
plants  of  the  unwooded  districts  —  prairies  or  savannas  west 
and  south,  —  which,  now  that  the  way  is  open,  are  coming  in 
one  by  one  into  these  eastern  parts,  extending  their  area  con- 
tinually, and  holding  their  ground  quite  as  pertinaciously  as 
the  immigrant  denizens.  Almost  every  year  gives  new  exam- 
ples of  the  immigration  of  campestrine  western  plants  into 
the  eastern  States.  They  are  well  up  to  the  spirit  of  the 
age;  they  travel  by  railway.  The  seeds  are  transported, 
some  in  the  coats  of  cattle  and  sheep  on  the  way  to  market, 
others  in  the  food  which  supports  them  on  the  journey,  and 
many   in    a    way    which   you    might    not  suspect,   until  you 


NORTH   AMERICAN  FLORA.  265 

consider  that  these  great  roads  run  east  and  west,  that  the 
prevalent  winds  are  from  the  west,  that  a  freight-train  left 
unguarded  was  not  long  ago  blown  on  for  more  than  one 
hundred  miles  before  it  could  be  stopped,  not  altogether  on 
down  grades,  and  that  the  bared  and  mostly  unkempt  borders 
of  these  railways  form  capital  seed-beds  and  nursery-ground 
for  such  plants. 

Returning  now  from  this  side  issue,  let  me  advert  to  another 
and,  I  judge,  a  very  pleasant  experience  which  the  botanist 
and  the  cultivator  may  have  on  first  visiting  tin-  American 
shores.  At  almost  every  step  he  comes  upon  old  acquaintances, 
upon  shrubs  and  trees  and  flowering  herbs,  mostly  peculiar  to 
this  country,  but  with  which  he  is  familiar  in  the  grounds  and 
gardens  of  his  home.  Great  Britain  is  especially  hospitable 
to  American  trees  and  shrubs.  There  those  both  of  the  east- 
ern and  western  sides  of  our  continent  flourish  side  by  Bide. 
Here  they  almost  wholly  refuse  such  association.  But  the 
most  familiar  and  longest-established  representatives  of  our 
flora  (certain  western  annuals  excepted)  were  drawn  from  the 
Atlantic  coast.  Among  them  are  the  Virginia  Creeper  or 
Ampelopsis,  almost  as  commonly  grown  in  Europe  as  here, 
and  which,  I  think,  displays  its  autumnal  crimson  as  brightly 
there  as  alons:  the  borders  of  its  native  woods  where  vou  will 
everywhere  meet  with  it;  the  Red  and  Sugar  Maples,  which 
give  the  notable  autumnal  glow  to  our  northern  woods,  but 
rarely  make  much  show  in  Europe,  perhaps  for  lack  of  sharp 
contrast  between  summer  and  autumn  ;  the  ornamental  Eri- 
caceous  shrubs,  Kalmias,  Azaleas,  Rhododendrons,  and  the 
like,  specially  called  American  plants  in  England,  although 
all  the  Rhododendrons  of  the  finer  sort  are  half  Asiatic,  the 
hardy  American  species  having  been  crossed  and  reen 
with  more  elegant  but  tender  Indian  species. 

As  to  flowering  herbs,  somewhat  of  the  delight  with  which 
an  American  first  gathers  wild  Primroses  and  Cowslips  and 
Foxgloves  and  Daisies  in  Europe,  may  be  enjoyed  by  the 
European  botanist  when  he  comes  upon  our  Trilliums  and 
Sanguinaria,  Cypripediums  and  Dodecatheon,  our  species  of 
Phlox,  Coreopsis,  etc.,  so  familiar  in  his  gardens;  or  when. 


266  ESSA  YS. 

crossing  the  continent,  he  comes  upon  large  tracts  of  ground 
yellow  with  Eschscholtzia  or  blue  with  Nemophilas.  But 
with  a  sentimental  difference ;  in  that  Primroses,  Daisies,  and 
Heaths,  like  nightingales  and  larks,  are  inwrought  into  our 
common  literature  and  poetry,  whereas  our  native  flowers  and 
birds,  if  not  altogether  unsung,  have  attained  at  the  most  to 
only  local  celebrit}^. 

Turning  now  from  similarities,  and  from  that  which  inter- 
change has  made  familiar,  to  that  which  is  different  or 
peculiar,  I  suppose  that  an  observant  botanist  upon  a  survey 
of  the  Atlantic  border  of  North  America  (which  naturally 
first  and  mainly  attracts  our  attention)  would  be  impressed 
by  the  comparative  wealth  of  this  flora  in  trees  and  shrubs. 
Not  so  much  so  in  the  Canadian  Dominion,  at  least  in  its 
eastern  part ;  but  even  here  the  difference  will  be  striking 
enough  on  comparing  Canada  with  Great  Britain. 

The  Coniferce,  native  to  the  British  Islands,  are  one  Pine, 
one  Juniper,  and  a  Yew ;  those  of  Canada  proper  are  four  or 
five  Pines,  four  Firs,  a  Larch,  an  Arbor- Vitse,  three  Junipers, 
and  a  Yew,  fourteen  or  fifteen  to  three.  Of  Amentaceous 
trees  and  shrubs,  Great  Britain  counts  one  Oak  (in  two 
marked  forms),  a  Beech,  a  Hazel,  a  Hornbeam,  two  Birches, 
an  Alder,  a  Myrica,  eighteen  Willows,  and  two  Poplars,  — 
twenty-eight  species  in  nine  genera,  and  under  four  natural 
orders.  In  Canada  there  are  at  least  eight  Oaks,  a  Chestnut, 
a  Beech,  two  Hazels,  two  Hornbeams  of  distinct  genera,  six 
Birches,  two  Alders,  about  fourteen  Willows  and  five  Poplars, 
also  a  Plane  tree,  two  Walnuts  and  four  Hickories  ;  say  forty- 
eight  species,  in  thirteen  genera,  and  belonging  to  seven 
natural  orders.  The  comparison  may  not  be  altogether  fair  ; 
for  the  British  flora  is  exceptionally  poor,  even  for  islands  so 
situated.  But  if  we  extend  it  to  Scandinavia,  so  as  to  have 
a  continental  and  an  equivalent  area,  the  native  Coniferce 
would  be  augmented  only  by  one  Fir,  the  Amentacece  by  sev- 
eral more  Willows,  a  Poplar,  and  one  or  two  more  Birches ; 
no  additional  orders  nor  genera. 

If  we  take  in  the  Atlantic  United  States  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  compare  this  area  with  Europe,  we  should  find 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  267 

the  species  and  the  types  increasing  as  we  proceed  southward, 
but  about  the  same  numerical  proportion  would  hold. 

But,  more  interesting  than  this  numerical  preponderance  — 
which  is  practically  confined  to  the  trees  and  shrubs  —  will 
be  the  extra-European  types,  which,  intermixed  with  familiar 
Old-World  forms,  give  peculiar  features  to  the  North  Amer- 
ican flora,  —  features  discernible  in  Canada,  but  more  and 
more  prominent  as  we  proceed  southward.  Still  confining 
our  survey  to  the  Atlantic  district,  that  is,  without  crossing 
the  Mississippi,  the  following  are  among  the  notable  points  : 

1.  Leguminous  Trees  of  peculiar  types.  Europe  abounds 
in  leguminous  shrubs  or  under-shrubs,  mostly  of  the  Genis- 
teous  tribe,  which  is  wanting  in  all  North  America,  but  has  do 
Leguminous  tree  of  more  pretence  than  the  Cercis  and  Labur- 
num. Our  Atlantic  forest  is  distinguished  by  a  Cercis  of  its 
own,  three  species  of  Locust,  two  of  them  fine  trees,  and  two 
Honey  Locusts,  the  beautiful  Cladrastis,  and  the  stately  (ivm- 
nocladus.  Only  the  Cercis  has  any  European  relationship. 
For  relatives  of  the  others  we  must  look  to  the  Chino-Japanese 
region. 

2.  The  great  development  of  the  Ericaceae  (taking  the 
order  in  its  widest  sense),  along  with  the  absence  of  the  Eri- 
ceous  tribe,  that  is,  of  the  Heaths  themselves.  "We  possess  on 
this  side  of  the  Mississippi  thirty  genera,  and  not  far  from 
ninety  species.  All  Europe  has  only  seventeen  genera  and 
barely  fifty  species.  We  have  most  of  the  actual  European 
species,  excepting  their  Rhododendrons  and  their  Heaths,  — 
and  even  the  latter  are  represented  by  some  scattered  patches 
of  Calluna,  of  which  it  may  be  still  doubtful  whether  they  are 
chance  introductions  or  sparse  and  scanty  survivals:  and 
besides  we  have  a  wealth  of  peculiar  genera  and  Bpecies. 
Among  them  the  most  notable  in  an  ornamental  point  of 
view  are  the  Rhododendrons,  Azaleas,  Kalmias,  Andromedas, 
and  Clethras;  in  botanical  interest,  the  endemic  Mbnotropeas, 
of  which  there  is  only  one  species  in  Europe,  but  seven  puna 
in  North  America,  all  but  one  absolutely  peculiar;  and  in 
edible  as  well  as  botanical  interest,  the  unexampled  develop- 
ment and  diversification  of  the  genus  Vaccinium  (along  with 


268  ESS  A  YS. 

the  allied  American  type,  Gaylussacia)  will  attract  attention. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  the  rapid  falling  away  of  Ericaceae 
westward  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  as  the  forest  thins 
out. 

3.  The  wealth  of  this  flora  in  Compositm  is  a  most  obvious 
feature ;  one  especially  prominent  at  this  season  of  the  year, 
when  the  open  grounds  are  becoming  golden  with  Solidago, 
and  the  earlier  of  the  autumnal  Asters  are  beginning-  to  bios- 
som.  The  Gompoutce  form  the  largest  order  of  Phaenogamous 
plants  in  all  temperate  floras  of  the  northern  hemisphere,  are 
well  up  to  the  average  in  Europe,  but  are  nowhere  so  numer- 
ous as  in  North  America,  where  they  form  an  eighth  part  of 
the  whole.  But  the  contrast  between  the  Compositce  of 
Europe  and  Atlantic  North  America  is  striking.  Europe 
runs  to  Thistles,  to  Inuloidece,  to  Antlicmidece,  and  to  Cicho- 
riacece.  It  has  very  few  Asters,  and  only  two  Solidagoes,  no 
Sunflowers,  and  hardly  anything  of  that  tribe.  Our  Atlantic 
flora  surpasses  all  the  world  in  Asters  and  Solidagoes,  as  also 
in  Sunflowers  and  their  various  allies,  is  rich  in  Eupatoriaceai, 
of  which  Europe  has  extremely  few,  and  is  well  supplied  with 

Vernoniacece  and  Helenioidece,  of  which  she  has  none ;  but  is 
scanty  in  all  the  groups  that  predominate  in  Europe.  I  may 
remark  that  if  our  larger  and  most  troublesome  genera,  such 
as  Solidago  and  Aster,  were  treated  in  our  systematic  works 
even  in  the  way  that  Nyman  has  treated  Hieracium  in  Europe, 
the  species  of  these  two  genera  (now  numbering  seventy-eight 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  respectively)  would  be  at 
least  doubled. 

4.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  contrast  between  the  flora 
of  Europe  and  that  of  the  eastern  border  of  North  America 
is  in  the  number  of  generic  and  even  ordinal  types  here  met 
with  which  are  wholly  absent  from  Europe.  Possibly  we  may 
distinguish  these  into  two  sets  of  differing  history.  One  will 
represent  a  tropical  element,  more  or  less  transformed,  which 
has  probably  acquired  or  been  able  to  hold  its  position  so  far 
north  in  virtue  of  our  high  summer  temperature.  (In  this 
whole  survey  the  peninsula  of  Florida  is  left  out  of  view,  re- 
garding its  botany  as  essentially  Bahaman  and  Cuban,  with  a 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  269 

certain  admixture  of  northern  elements.)  To  the  first  type  I 
refer  such  trees  and  shrubs  as  Asimina,  sole  representative  of 
the  Anonacece  out  of  the  tropics,  and  reaching  even  to  lat.  42°  ; 
Chrysobalanus,  representing  a  tropical  suborder;  Pinckneya, 
representing  as  far  north  as  Georgia  the  Cinchoneous  tribe; 
the  Baccharis  of  our  coast,  reaching  even  to  New  England  ; 
Cyrilla  and  Cliftonia,  the  former  actually  West  Indian  ; 
Bumelia,  representing  the  tropical  order  SapotaceoB ;  Big- 
nonia  and  Tecoma  of  the  Bignoniacea  ;  Forestiera  in  Ole- 
acece ;  Persea  of  the  Laurineoe ;  and  finally  the  Cactacece. 
Among  the  herbaceous  plants  of  this  set  I  will  allude  only  to 
some  of  peculiar  orders.  Among  them  I  reckon  Sarracenia, 
of  which  the  only  extra-North  American  representative  is 
tropical- American,  the  Melastomacccv,  represented  by  Rhexia  ; 
Passiflora  (our  species  being  herbaceous),  a  few  representa- 
tives of  Loasacece  and  Turner acece,  also  of  Hydrophyllacea  ; 
our  two  genera  of  Burmanniacece ;  three  genera  of  Ha  mo- 
dor acece  ;  Tillandsia  in  Bromeliacece  ;  two  genera  of  Ponte- 
deriacece  ;  two  of  Commelynacece  ;  the  outlying  Mayaca  and 
Xyris,  and  three  genera  of  Eriocaulonaccce.  I  do  not  forgel 
that  one  of  our  species  of  Eriocaulon  occurs  on  the  west  coast 
of  Ireland  and  in  Skye,  wonderfully  out  of  place,  though  <>n 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic  it  reaches  Newfoundland.  It  may  be 
a  survival  in  the  Old  World  ;  but  it  is  more  probably  of 
chance  introduction. 

The  other  set  of  extra-European  types,  characteristic  of  the 
Atlantic  North  American  flora,  is  very  notable.  According  to 
a  view  which  I  have  much  and  for  a  long  while  insisted  on.  it 
may  be  said  to  represent  a  certain  portion  of  the  once  rather 
uniform  flora  of  the  arctic  and  less  boreal  zone,  from  the  late 
Tertiary  down  to  the  incoming  of  the  Glacial  period,  ami 
which,  brought  down  to  our  lower  latitudes  by  the  gradual 
refrigeration,  has  been  preserved  here  in  eastern  North 
America  and  in  the  corresponding  parts  of  Asia,  but  was  lost 
to  Europe.  I  need  not  recapitulate  the  evidence  upon  which 
this  now  generally  accepted  doctrine  was  founded  ;  and  to 
enumerate  the  plants  which  testify  in  its  favor  would  amount 
to  an  enumeration  of  the  greater  part  of  the  genera  or  sub- 


270  ESSA  YS. 

ordinate  groups  of  plants  which  distinguish  our  Atlantic  flora 
from  that  of  Europe.  The  evidence,  in  brief,  is  that  the 
plants  in  question,  or  their  moderately  differentiated  represen- 
tatives, still  coexist  in  the  flora  of  eastern  North  America 
and  that  of  the  Chino- Japanese  region,  the  climates  and  con- 
ditions of  which  are  very  similar  ;  and  that  the  fossilized  rep- 
resentatives of  many  of  them  have  been  brought  to  light  in 
the  late  tertiary  deposits  of  the  arctic  zone  wherever  explored. 
In  mentioning  some  of  the  plants  of  this  category  I  include 
the  Magnolias,  although  there  are  no  nearly  identical  species, 
but  there  is  a  seemingly  identical  Liriodendron  in  China,  and 
the  Schizandras  and  Illiciums  are  divided  between  the  two 
floras ;  and  I  put  into  the  list  Menispermum,  of  which  the 
only  other  species  is  eastern  Siberian,  and  is  hardly  distin- 
guishable from  ours.  When  you  call  to  mind  the  series  of 
wholly  extra-European  types  which  are  identically  or  approxi- 
mately represented  in  the  eastern  North  American  and  in  the 
eastern  Asiatic  temperate  floras,  such  as  Trautvetteria  and 
Hydrastis  in  Rannncidacem ;  Cauloplryllum,  Diphylleia, 
Jeffersonia  and  Podophyllum  in  Berberidece ;  Brasenia  and 
Nelumbium  in  Nymphceacece  ;  Stylophorum  in  Papaveracece  ; 
Stuartia  and  Gordonia  in  Ternstroemiacece ;  the  equivalent 
species  of  Xanthoxylum,  the  equivalent  and  identical  species 
of  Vitis,  and  of  the  poisonous  species  of  Rhus  (one,  if  not 
both,  of  which  you  may  meet  with  in  every  botanical  excur- 
sion, and  which  it  will  be  safer  not  to  handle)  ;  the  Horse- 
chestnuts,  here  called  Buckeyes  ;  the  Negundo,  a  peculiar  off- 
shoot of  the  Maple  tribe ;  when  you  consider  that  almost 
every  one  of  the  peculiar  Leguminous  tree  mentioned  as 
characteristic  of  our  flora  is  represented  by  a  species  in  China 
or  Mandchuria  or  Japan,  and  so  of  some  herbaceous  Legumi- 
nosce  ;  when  you  remember  that  the  peculiar  small  order  of 
which  Calycanthus  is  the  principal  type  has  its  other  repre- 
sentative in  the  same  region  ;  that  the  species  of  Philadelphia, 
of  Hydrangea,  of  Itea,  Astilbe,  Hamamelis,  Diervilla,  Trios- 
teum,  Mitchella  which  carpets  the  ground  under  evergreen 
woods,  Chiogenes,  creeping  over  the  shaded  bogs ;  Epigaea, 
choicest  woodland  flower  of  early  spring ;  Elliottia ;  Shortia 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  271 

(the  curious  history  of  which  I  need  not  rehearse)  ;  Sty  rax  of 
cognate  species ;  Nyssa,  the  Asiatic  representatives  of  which 
affect  a  warmer  region  ;  Gelsemiuni,  which  under  the  name 
of  Jessamine  is  the  vernal  pride  of  the  southern  Atlantic 
States;  Pyrularia  and  Buckleya,  peculiar  Santalaceous  shrubs  ; 
Sassafras  and  Benzoins  of  the  Laurel  family;  Planera  and 
Maclura ;  Pachysandra  of  the  Box  tribe;  the  great  develop- 
ment of  the  Juf/landacece  (of  which  the  sole  representative 
in  Europe  probably  was  brought  by  man  into  southeastern 
Europe  in  pre-historic  times)  ;  our  Hemlock  ^nruces,  Arbor- 
Vitae,  Chama3cyparis,  Taxodium,  and  Torrey,  7. Q  ggj  heir  east 
Asian  counterparts,  the  Roxburgliiacecv,  represented  by 
Croomia,  —  and  I  might  much  further  extend  and  particularize 
the  enumeration,  —  you  will  have  enough  to  make  it  clear  that 
the  peculiarities  of  the  one  flora  are  the  peculiarities  of  the 
other,  and  that  the  two  are  in  striking  contrast  with  the  flora 
of  Europe. 

This  contrast  is  susceptible  of  explanation.  I  have  ven- 
tured to  regard  the  two  antipodal  floras  thus  compared  as  the 
favored  heirs  of  the  ante-glacial  high-northern  flora,  or  rather 
as  the  heirs  who  have  retained  most  of  their  inheritance. 
For,  inasmuch  as  the  present  arctic  flora  is  essentially  the 
same  round  the  world,  and  the  Tertiary  fossil  plants  entombed 
in  the  strata  beneath  are  also  largely  identical  in  all  the  longi- 
tudes, we  may  well  infer  that  the  ancestors  of  the  present 
northern  temperate  plants  were  as  widely  distributed  through- 
out their  northern  home.  In  their  enforced  migration  south- 
ward, geographical  configuration  and  climatic  differences 
would  begin  to  operate.  Perhaps  the  way  into  Europe  was 
less  open  than  into  the  lower  latitudes  of  America  and  eastern 
Asia,  although  there  is  reason  to  think  that  Greenland  was 
joined  to  Scandinavia.  However  that  be,  we  know  that  Europe 
was  fairly  well  furnished  with  many  of  the  vegetable  types 
that  are  now  absent,  possibly  with  most  of  them.  Those  that 
have  been  recognized  are  mainly  trees  and  shrubs,  which 
somehow  take  most  readily  to  fossilization,  but  the  herbaceous 
vegetation  probably  accompanied  the  arboreal.  At  any  rate, 
Europe  then  possessed  Torreyas,  and  Gingkos,  Taxodium  and 


272 


ESS  A  YS. 


as 


Glyptostrobus,  Libocedrus,  Pines  of  our  five-leaved  type, 
well  as  the  analogues  of  other  American  forms,  several  species 
of  Juglans  answering  to  the  American  forms,  and  the  now 
peculiarly  American  genus  Carya,  Oaks  of  the  American 
types,  Myricas  of  the  two  American  types,  one  or  two  Planer- 
trees,  species  of  Populus  answering  to  our  Cottonwoods  and 
our  Balsam-poplar,  a  Sassafras  and  the  analogues  of  our  Per- 
sea  and  Benzoin,  a  Catalpa,  Magnolias,  and  a  Liriodendron, 
Maples  answering  to  ours,  and  also  a  Negundo,  and  such  pe- 
culiarly American  Leguminous  genera  as  the  Locust,  Honey 

Locust,  and  f  -m^™1    ~  ■        t*._.     \  ,  ,        -^ 

.,  A  a  see-«v*uoiadus.      ±0  understand  how  Europe  came 

^ob  'these  elements  of  her  flora,  and  Atlantic  North  Amer- 
ica to  retain  them,  we  must  recall  the  poverty  of  Europe  in 
native  forest  trees,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded.  A  few 
years  ago,  in  an  article  on  this  subject,  I  drew  up  a  sketch  of 
the  relative  richness  of  Europe,  Atlantic  North  America, 
Pacific  North  America,  and  the  eastern  side  of  temperate  Asia 
in  genera  and  species  of  forest  trees.1  In  that  sketch,  as  I 
am  now  convinced,  the  European  forest  elements  were  some- 
what underrated.  I  allowed  only  thirty-three  genera  and 
eighty-five  species,  while  to  our  Atlantic  American  forest  were 
assigned  sixty-six  genera  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-five 
species.  I  find  from  Nyman's  Conspectus  that  there  are  trees 
on  the  southern  and  eastern  borders  of  Europe  which  I  had 
omitted ;  that  there  are  good  species  which  I  had  reckoned  as 
synonyms,  and  some  that  may  rise  to  arboreal  height  which  I 
had  counted  as  shrubs.  But  on  the  other  hand  and  for  the 
present  purpose  it  may  be  rejoined  that  the  list  contained 
several  trees,  of  as  many  genera,  which  were  probably  carried 
from  Asia  into  Europe  by  the  hand  of  man.  On  Nyman's 
authority  I  may  put  into  this  category  Cercis  Siliquastrum, 
Ceratonia  Siliqua,  Diosjiyros  Lotus,  Styrax  officinalis^  the 
Olive,  and  even  the  Walnut,  the  Chestnut,  and  the  Cypress. 
However  this  may  be,  it  seems  clear  that  the  native  forest 
flora  of  Europe  is  exceptionally  poor,  and  that  it  has  lost 
many  species  and  types  which  once  belonged  to  it.  We  must 
suppose  that  the  herbaceous  flora  has  suffered  in  the  same 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xvi.  85. 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  273 

way.  I  have  endeavored  to  show  how  this  has  naturally  come 
about.  I  cannot  state  it  more  concisely  than  in  the  terms 
which  I  used  six  years  ago. 

"  I  conceive  that  three  things  have  conspired  to  this  loss  of 
American,  or  as  we  might  say,  of  normal  types  sustained  by 
Europe.  First,  Europe,  extending  but  little  south  of  hit.  LO  - 
is  all  within  the  limits  of  severe  glacial  action.  Second,  its 
mountains  trend  east  and  west,  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  ( Car- 
pathians and  the  Caucasus  beyond:  they  had  glaciers  of 
their  own,  which  must  have  begun  their  work  and  poured 
down  the  northward  flanks  while  the  plains  were  still  covered 
with  forest  on  the  retreat  from  the  great  ice  forces  coming 
from  the  north.  Attacked  both  on  front  and  rear,  much  of 
the  forest  must  have  perished  then  and  there. 

"  Third,  across  the  line  of  retreat  of  whatever  trees  may 
have  flanked  the  mountain  ranges,  or  were  stationed  south  of 
them,  stretched  the  Mediterranean,  an  impassable  barrier.  .  .  . 
Escape  by  the  east,  and  rehabilitation  from  that  quarter  until 
a  very  late  period,  was  apparently  prevented  by  the  prolon- 
gation of  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Caspian,  and  probably 
thence  to  the  Siberian  Ocean.  If  we  accept  the  supposition 
of  Nordenskjold  that,  anterior  to  the  Glacial  period,  Europe 
was  'bounded  on  the  south  by  an  ocean  extending  from  the 
Atlantic  over  the  present  deserts  of  Sahara  and  Central  Asia 
to  the  Pacific,'  all  chance  of  these  American  types  having  es- 
caped from  and  reentered  Europe  from  the  south  and  easl 
seems  excluded.  Europe  may  thus  be  conceived  to  have  been 
for  a  time  somewhat  in  the  condition  in  which  Greenland  is 
now.  .  .  .  Greenland  may  be  referred  to  as  a  country  which, 
having  undergone  extreme  glaciation,  bears  the  marks  of  it  in 
the  extreme  poverty  of  its  flora,  and  in  the  absence  of  the 
plants  to  which  its  southern  portion,  extending  six  degrees 
below  the  arctic  circle,  might  be  entitled.  It  ought  to  have 
trees  and  it  might  support  them.  But  since  their  destruction 
by  glaciation  no  way  has  been  open  for  their  return.  Europe 
fared  much  better,  but  has  suffered  in  its  degree  in  a  similar 
way." 

Turning  to  this  country  for  a  contrast,  we  find  the  cont*- 


274  ESS  A  YS. 

Dent  on  the  eastern  side  unbroken  and  open  from  the  arctic 
circle  to  the  tropic,  and  the  mountains  running  north  and 
south.  The  vegetation  when  pressed  on  the  north  by  on- 
coming refrigeration  had  only  to  move  its  southern  border 
southward  to  enjoy  its  normal  climate  over  a  favorable  region 
of  great  extent ;  and,  upon  the  recession  of  glaciation  to  the 
present  limit,  or  in  the  oscillations  which  intervened,  there 
was  no  physical  impediment  to  the  adjustment.  Then,  too, 
the  more  southern  latitude  of  this  country  gave  great  advan- 
tage over  Europe.  The  line  of  terminal  moraines,  which 
marks  the  limit  of  glaciation,  rarely  passes  the  parallel  of  40° 
or  39°.  Nor  have  any  violent  changes  occurred  here,  as  they 
have  on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent,  within  the  period 
under  question.  So,  while  Europe  was  suffering  hardship, 
the  lines  of  our  Atlantic  American  flora  were  cast  in  pleasant 
places,  and  the  goodly  heritage  remains  essentially  unim- 
paired. 

The  transverse  direction  and  the  massiveness  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Europe,  while  they  have  in  part  determined  the  com- 
parative poverty  of  its  forest-vegetation,  have  preserved  there 
a  rich  and  widely  distributed  alpine  flora.  That  of  Atlantic 
North  America  is  insignificant.  It  consists  of  a  few  arctic 
plants,  left  scattered  upon  narrow  and  scattered  mountain- 
tops,  or  in  cool  ravines  of  moderate  elevation  ;  the  maximum 
altitude  is  only  about  6000  feet  in  lat.  44°,  on  the  White 
Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  where  no  winter  snow  outlasts 
mid-summer.  The  best  alpine  stations  are  within  easy  reach 
of  Montreal.  But  as  almost  every  species  is  common  to  Eu- 
rope, and  the  mountains  are  not  magnificent,  they  offer  no 
great  attraction  to  a  European  botanist. 

Farther  south,  the  Appalachian  Mountains  are  higher,  be- 
tween lat.  36°  and  34°  rising  considerably  above  6000  feet ; 
they  have  botanical  attractions  of  their  own,  but  they  have  no 
alpine  plants.  A  few  sub-alpine  species  linger  on  the  cool 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  at  a  comparatively  low  level.  Per- 
haps as  many  are  found  nearly  at  the  level  of  the  sea  on  An- 
ticosti,  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  abnormally  cooled  by  the 
Labrador  current. 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  275 

The  chain  of  the  great  fresh-water  lakes,  which  are  dis- 
charged by  the  brimming  St.  Lawrence,  seems  to  have  little 
effect  upon  our  botany,  beyond  the  bringing  down  of  a  few- 
northwestern  species.  But  you  may  note  with  interest  that 
they  harbor  sundry  maritime  species,  mementoes  of  the  for- 
mer saltness  of  these  interior  seas.  Cakile  Americana,  much 
like  the  European  Sea  Rocket,  Hudsonia  tomentosa  (a  pe- 
culiar Cistaceous  genus  imitating  a  Heath),  L<iili>/rns  m<iri- 
timus,  and  Ammojthiht  armaria,  are  the  principal.  Salicor- 
nia,  Glaux,  Scirpus  maritirnus,  Ranunculus  Cymbalaria, 
and  some  others,  may  be  associated  with  them.  But  these 
are  widely  diffused  over  the  saline  soil  which  characterizes 
the  plains  beyond  our  wooded  region. 

I  have  thought  that  some  general  considerations  like  these 
might  have  more  interest  for  the  biological  section  at  large 
than  any  particular  indications  of  our  most  interesting  plants, 
and  of  how  and  where  the  botanist  might  find  them.  Those 
who  in  these  busy  days  can  find  time  to  herborize'  will  be  in 
the  excellent  hands  of  the  Canadian  botanists.  At  Philadel- 
phia their  brethren  of  the  United  States  will  be  assembled  to 
meet  their  visitors,  and  the  Philadelphians  will  escort  them  to 
their  classic  ground,  the  Pine  Barrens  of  New  Jersey.  To 
have  an  idea  of  this  peculiar  phytogeographical  district,  you 
may  suppose  a  long  wedge  of  the  Carolina  coast  t»>  be  thrust 
up  northward  quite  to  New  York  harbor,  bringing  into  a  com- 
paratively cool  climate  many  of  the  interesting  low-country 
plants  of  the  south,  which,  at  this  season,  you  would  not  cart* 
to  seek  in  their  sultry  proper  homes.  Years  ago.  when  Pursh 
and  Leconte  and  Torrey  used  to  visit  it,  and  in  my  own 
younger  days,  it  was  wholly  primitive  and  upsoiled.  Now, 
when  the  shore  is  lined  with  huge  summer  hotels,  tin-  Pitch 
Pines  carried  off  for  firewood,  the  bogs  converted  into  Cran- 
berry-grounds, and  much  of  the  light  sandy  or  gravelly  -"il 
planted  with  wine-yards  or  converted  into  Melon  ami  Sweet- 
potato  patches,  I  fear  it  may  have  lost  some  of  its  botanical 
attractions.  But  large  tracts  are  still  nearly  in  a  Btate  of 
nature.  Drosera  filiform  is,  so  unlike  any  European  species, 
and    the   beautiful   Sabbatias,   the   yellow   Fringed   Orchis, 


276  ESSAYS. 

Laehnanthes  and  Lophiola,  the  larger  Xyrises  and  Eriocau- 
lons,  the  curious  grass  Amphicarpum  with  cleistogamous 
flowers  at  the  root,  the  showy  species  of  Chrysopsis,  and  many 
others,  must  still  abound.  And  every  botanist  will  wish  to 
collect  Schizcea  pusilla,  rarest,  most  local,  and  among  the 
smallest  of  Ferns. 

If  only  the  season  would  allow  it,  there  is  a  more  southern 
station  of  special  interest,  —  Wilmington,  on  the  coast  of 
North  Carolina.  Carnivorous  plants  have,  of  late  years,  ex- 
cited the  greatest  interest,  both  popular  and  scientific  ;  and 
here,  of  all  places,  carnivorous  plants  seem  to  have  their 
most  varied  development.  For  this  is  the  only  and  the  very 
local  home  of  Dionsea;  here  grow  almost  all  the  North 
American  species  of  Drosera  ;  here  or  near  by  are  most  of 
the  species  of  Sarracenia,  of  the  bladder-bearing  Utricula- 
rias,  —  one  of  which  the  president  of  our  Section  has  detected 
in  fish-catching,  —  and  also  the  largest  species  of  Pinguicula. 

But  at  this  season  a  more  enjoyable  excursion  may  be  made 
to  the  southern  portion  of  the  Alleghany  or  Appalachian 
Mountains,  which  separate  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  side 
from  those  of  the  Mississippi.  These  mountains  are  now 
easily  reached  from  Philadelphia.  In  Pennsylvania,  where 
they  consist  of  parallel  ridges  without  peaks  or  crests,  and 
are  of  no  great  height,  they  are  less  interesting  botanically 
than  in  Virginia ;  but  it  is  in  North  Carolina  and  the  ad- 
jacent borders  of  Tennessee  that  they  rise  to  their  highest  al- 
titude and  take  on  more  picturesque  forms.  On  their  sides 
the  Atlantic  forest,  especially  its  deciduous-leaved  portion,  is 
still  to  be  seen  to  greatest  advantage,  nearly  in  pristine  con- 
dition, and  composed  of  a  greater  variety  of  genera  and  spe- 
cies than  in  any  other  temperate  region,  excepting  Japan. 
And  in  their  shade  are  the  greatest  variety  and  abundance  of 
shrubs,  and  a  good  share  of  the  most  peculiar  herbaceous 
genera.  This  is  the  special  home  of  our  Rhododendrons, 
Azaleas,  and  Kalmias ;  at  least  here  they  flourish  in  greatest 
number  and  in  most  luxuriant  growth.  Rhododendron  maxi- 
mum (which  is  found  in  a  scattered  way  even  as  far  north  as 
the  vicinity  of  Montreal)  and  Kdlmia  latifolia  (both  called 


NORTH  AMERICAN   FLORA.  277 

Laurels)  even  become  forest  trees  in  some  places  ;  more  com- 
monly they  are  shrubs,  forming  dense  thickets  on  steep  moun- 
tain-sides, through  which  the  traveler  can  make  his  way  only 
by  following  old  bear-paths,  or  by  keeping  strictly  on  the  di- 
viding crests  of  the  leading  ridges. 

Only  on  the  summits  do  we  find  Rhododendron  Cataw- 
bie?ise,  parent  of  so  many  handsome  forms  in  English 
grounds,  and  on  the  higher  wooded  slopes  tin-  yellow  and  the 
flame-colored  Azalea  calendulacea ;  on  the  lower,  the  pink 
A.  nudiflora  and  more  showy  A.  arborescens,  along  with  the 
common  and  widespread  A.  viscosa.  The  latter  pari  of 
June  is  the  proper  time  to  explore  this  region,  and,  if  only 
one  portion  can  be  visited,  Roan  Mountain  should  be  pro 
ferred. 

On  these  mountain-tops  we  meet  with  a  curious  anomaly  in 
geographical  distribution.  With  rarest  exceptions,  plants 
which  are  common  to  this  country  and  to  Europe  extend  well 
northward.  But  on  these  summits  from  southern  Virginia  to 
Carolina,  yet  nowhere  else,  we  find  —  undoubtedly  indige- 
nous and  undoubtedly  identical  with  the  European  species  — 
the  Lily-of-the-Valley  ! 

I  have  given  so  much  of  my  time  to  the  botany  of  the  At- 
lantic border  that  I  can  barely  touch  upon  that  of  the  western 
regions. 

Between  the  wooded  country  of  the  Atlantic  side  of  the 
continent  and  that  of  the  Pacific  side  lies  avast  extent  d 
plains  which  are  essentially  woodless,  except  where  they  an- 
tra versed  by  mountain-chains.  The  prairies  of  the  Atlantic- 
States  bordering  the  Mississippi  and  of  the  Winnipeg  country 
shade  off  into  the  drier  and  gradually  more  saline  plains,  which, 
with  an  even  and  gradual  rise,  attain  an  elevation  of  5000  feel 
or  more  where  they  abut  against  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Until 
these  are  reached  (over  a  space  from  the  Alleghanies  westward 
of  about  twenty  degrees  of  longitude)  the  plains  are  unbroken. 
To  a  moderate  distance  beyond  the  Mississippi  the  country 
must  have  been  in  the  main  naturally  wooded.  There  is  rain- 
fall enough  for  forest  on  these  actual  prairies.  Trees  grow 
fairly  well  when  planted;  they  are  coming  up  spontaneously 


278  ESSA  YS. 

under  present  opportunities  ;  and  there  is  reason  for  thinking 
that  all  the  prairies  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  of  the  Mis- 
souri up  to  Minnesota,  have  been  either  greatly  extended  or 
were  even  made  treeless  under  Indian  occupation  and  annual 
burnings.  These  prairies  are  flowery  with  a  good  number  of 
characteristic  plants,  many  of  them  evidently  derived  from  the 
plains  farther  west.  At  this  season,  the  predominant  vege- 
tation is  of  Compositce,  especially  of  Asters  and  Solidagoes, 
and  of  Sunflowers,  Silphiums,  and  other  Helianthoid  Com- 
positoe. 

The  drier  and  barer  plains  beyond,  clothed  with  the  short 
Buffalo-grasses,  probably  never  bore  trees  in  their  present 
state,  except  as  now  some  Cottonwoods  (i.  e.  Poplars)  on  the 
margins  of  the  long  rivers  which  traverse  them  in  their  course 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Mississippi.  Westward,  the 
plains  grow  more  and  more  saline  ;  and  Wormwoods  and  Che- 
nopodiacece  of  various  sorts  form  the  dominant  vegetation, 
some  of  them  sui  generis  or  at  least  peculiar  to  the  country, 
others  identical  or  congeneric  with  those  of  the  steppes  of 
central  Asia.  Along  with  this  common  campestrine  vegeta- 
tion there  is  a  large  infusion  of  peculiar  American  types, 
which  I  suppose  came  from  the  southward,  and  to  which  I  will 
again  refer. 

Then  come  the  Rocky  Mountains,  traversing  the  whole  con- 
tinent from  north  to  south  ;  their  flanks  wooded,  but  not  richly 
so,  —  chiefly  with  Pines  and  Firs  of  very  few  species,  and  with 
a  single  ubiquitous  Poplar,  their  higher  crests  bearing  a  well- 
developed  alpine  flora.  This  is  the  arctic  flora  prolonged  south- 
ward upon  the  mountains  of  sufficient  elevation,  with  a  certain 
admixture  in  the  lower  latitudes  of  types  pertaining  to  the 
lower  vicinity. 

There  are  almost  200  alpine  Phaenogamous  species  now 
known  on  the  Rocky  Mountains  ;  fully  three-quarters  of  which 
are  arctic,  including  Alaskan  and  Greenlandian  ;  and  about 
half  of  them  are  known  in  Europe.  Several  others  are  north 
Asian  but  not  European.  Even  in  that  northern  portion  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  which  the  Association  is  invited  to 
visit,  several  alpine  species  novel  to  European  botany  may  be 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  279 

met  with  ;  and  farther  south  the  peculiar  forms  increase.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  many  Old-World 
species  extend  their  range  southward  even  to  hit.  3G°  or  35°. 

I  have  not  seen  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  the  Dominion  ; 
but  I  apprehend  that  the  aspect  and  character  of  the  forest  is 
Canadian,  is  mainly  coniferous,  and  composed  of  very  few 
species.  Oaks  and  other  cupuliferous  trees,  which  give  char- 
acter to  the  Atlantic  forest,  are  entirely  wanting,  until  the 
southern  confines  of  the  region  are  reached  in  Colorado  and 
New  Mexico,  and  there  they  are  few  and  small.  In  these 
southern  parts  there  is  a  lesser  amount  of  forest,  but  a  much 
greater  diversity  of  genera  and  species;  of  which  the  most 
notable  are  the  Pines  of  the  Mexican-plateau  type. 

The  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  coast  ranges  on  the  Pacific 
side  so  nearly  approach  in  British  America  that  their  forests 
merge,  and  the  eastern  types  are  gradually  replaced  by  the 
more  peculiar  western.  But  in  the  United  States  a  broad, 
arid  and  treeless,  and  even  truly  desert  region  is  interposed. 
This  has  its  greatest  breadth  and  is  best  known  where  it  is 
traversed  by  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad.  It  is  an  immense 
plain  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Siena  Nevada, 
largely  a  basin  with  no  outlet  to  the  sea,  covered  with  Sage- 
brush (i.  e.  peculiar  species  of  Artemisia)  and  other  subsaline 
vegetation,  all  of  grayish  hue;  traversed,  mostly  north  and 
south,  by  chains  of  mountains,  which  seem  to  be  more  bare 
than  the  plains,  but  which  hold  in  their  recesses  a  considerable 
amount  of  forest  and  of  other  vegetation,  mostly  of  Rocky 
Mountains  types. 

Desolate  and  desert  as  this  region  appears,  it  is  far  from 
uninteresting  to  the  botanist  ;  but  I  must  not  stop  to  show 
how.  Yet  even  the  ardent  botanist  feels  a  sense  of  relief  and 
exultation  when,  as  he  reaches  the  Sierra  Nevada,  he  passes 
abruptly  into  perhaps  the  noblest  coniferous  foresl  in  the 
world,  —  a  forest  which  stretches  along  this  range  and  its 
northern  continuation,  and  along  the  less  elevated  ranges 
which  border  the  Pacific  coast,  from  the  southern  pari  <>i'  (  ali- 
fornia  to  Alaska. 

So  much  has  been  said  about  this   forest,  about  the  two 


280  ESSA  YS. 

gigantic  trees  which  have  made  it  famous,  and  its  Pines  and 
Firs  which  are  hardly  less  wonderful,  and  which  in  Oregon 
and  British  Columbia,  descending  into  the  plains,  yield  far 
more  timber  to  the  acre  than  can  be  found  anywhere  else,  —  I 
have  myself  discoursed  upon  the  subject  so  largely  on  former 
occasions,  that  I  may  cut  short  all  discourse  upon  the  Pacific- 
coast  flora  and  the  questions  it  brings  up. 

I  note  only  these  points.  Although  this  flora  is  richer  than 
that  of  the  Atlantic  in  Coniferce  (having  almost  twice  as  many 
species),  richer  indeed  than  any  other  except  that  of  eastern 
Asia,  it  is  very  meagre  in  deciduous  trees.  It  has  a  fair  num- 
ber of  Oaks,  indeed,  and  it  has  a  Flowering  Dogwood,  even 
more  showy  than  that  which  brightens  our  eastern  woodlands 
in  spring.  But,  altogether  it  possesses  only  one-quarter  of  the 
number  of  species  of  deciduous  trees  that  the  Atlantic  forest 
has ;  it  is  even  much  poorer  than  Europe  in  this  respect.  It 
is  destitute  not  only  of  the  characteristic  trees  of  the  Atlantic 
side,  such  as  Liriodendron,  Magnolia,  Asimina,  Nyssa,  Catalpa, 
Sassafras,  Carya,  and  the  arboreous  Leguminosce  (Cercis  ex- 
cepted), but  it  also  wants  most  of  the  genera  which  are  com- 
mon throughout  all  the  other  northern-temperate  floras,  having 
no  Lindens,  Elms,  Mulberries,  Celtis,  Beech,  Chestnut,  Horn- 
beam, and  few  and  small  Ashes  and  Maples.  The  shrubbery 
and  herbaceous  vegetation,  although  rich  and  varied,  is  largely 
peculiar,  especially  at  the  south.  At  the  north  we  find  a  fair 
number  of  species  identical  with  the  eastern ;  but  it  is  interest- 
ing to  remark  that  this  region,  interposed  between  the  north- 
east Asiatic  and  the  north-east  American  and  with  coast  ap- 
proximate to  the  former,  has  few  of  those  peculiar  genera 
which,  as  I  have  insisted,  witness  to  a  most  remarkable  con- 
nection between  two  floras  so  widely  sundered  geographically. 
Some  of  these  types,  indeed,  occur  in  the  intermediate  region, 
rendering  the  general  absence  the  more  noteworthy.  And 
certain  peculiar  types  are  represented  in  single  identical 
species  on  the  coasts  of  Oregon  and  Japan,  etc.,  (such  as 
Lysichiton,  Fatsia,  Glehnia)  ;  yet  there  is  less  community 
between  these  floras  than  might  be  expected  from  their 
geographical  proximity  at  the  north.  Of  course  the  high- 
northern  flora  is  not  here  in  view. 


NORTH  AMERICAN  FLORA.  281 

Now  if,  as  I  have  maintained,  the  eastern  side  of  North 
America  and  the  eastern  side  of  northern  Asia  are  the  favored 
heirs  of  the  old  boreal  flora,  and  if  I  have  plausibly  explained 
how  Europe  lost  so  much  of  its  portion  of  a  common  inher- 
itance, it  only  remains  to  consider  how  the  western  Bide  of 
North  America  lost  so  much  more.  For  that  the  missing  types 
once  existed  there,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  has  already  been  in- 
dicated in  the  few  fossil  explorations  that  have  been  made. 
They  have  brought  to  light  Magnolias,  Elms,  Beeches,  ( Chest- 
nuts, a  Liquidambar,  etc.  And  living  witnesses  remain  in  the 
two  Sequoias  of  California,  whose  ancestors,  along  with  Taxo- 
dium,  which  is  similarly  preserved  on  the  Atlantic  side,  ap- 
pear to  have  formed  no  small  part  of  the  Miocene  flora  of  the 
arctic  regions. 

Several  causes  may  have  conspired  in  the  destruction  ;  — 
climatic  differences  between  the  two  sides  of  the  continent, 
such  as  must  early  have  been  established  (and  we  know  that 
a  difference  no  greater  than  the  present  would  be  effective)  ; 
geographical  configuration,  probably  confining  the  migration 
to  and  fro  to  a  long  and  narrow  tract,  little  wider,  perhaps, 
than  that  to  which  it  is  now  restricted  ;  the  tremendous  out- 
pouring of  lava  and  volcanic  ashes  just  anterior  to  the  Glacial 
period,  by  which  a  large  part  of  the  region  was  thickly  cov- 
ered ;  and,  at  length,  competition  from  the  Mexican -plateau 
vegetation,  —  a  vegetation  beyond  the  reach  of  general  glacial 
movement  from  the  north,  and  climatically  well  adapted  to 
the  southwestern  portion  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  now  becoming  obvious  that  the  Mexican-plateau  vege- 
tation is  the  proximate  source  of  most  of  the  peculiar  ele- 
ments of  the  Californian  flora,  as  also  of  the  southern  Rocky 
Mountain- region  and  of  the  Great  Basin  between  ;  and  that 
these  plants  from  the  south  have  competed  with  those  from 
the  north  on  the  eastward  plains  and  prairies.  It  is  from  this 
source  that  are  derived  not  only  our  Cactece  but  our  MimoSi  a  , 
our  Daleas  and  Petalostemons,  our  numerous  and  varied  Onar 
gracece,  our  Loasacccc,  a  large  part  of  our  (Ompositce^  espe- 
cially the  Fupatoriacccv,  HdianthoidecB^  ETelenioideas,  and 
Mutisiacece,  which  are  so  characteristic  of  the  country,  the 


282  ESSAYS. 

Asclepiadece,  the  very  numerous  Polemoniacece,  HydrophyU 
lacece,  Eriogonece,  and  the  like. 

I  had  formerly  recognized  this  element  in  our  North  Amer- 
ican flora ;  but  I  have  only  recently  come  to  apprehend  its  full 
significance.  With  increasing  knowledge  we  may  in  a  good 
measure  discriminate  between  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
northern  flora  and  those  which  come  from  the  highlands  of 
the  southwest. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 


BROWN   AND  HUMBOLDT.1 

Beyond  the  immediate  pale  of  science,  and  the  circle  of 
its  most  devoted  cultivators,  the  association  of  the  names  of 
Humboldt  and  Brown  may  seem  new  and  strange ;  —  the  one 
a  name  familiar  to  the  whole  civilized  world ;  the  other, 
hardly  known  to  a  large  portion  of  his  educated  countrymen. 
Yet  these  names  stand  together,  in  the  highest  place,  upon 
the  rolls  of  almost  every  Academy  of  Science  in  the  world  ; 
and  the  common  judgment  of  those  competent  to  pronounce  it 
will  undoubtedly  be,  that  although  these  vacant  places  upon 
these  honorable  rolls  may  be  occupied,  they  will  not  be  filled, 
in  this,  perhaps  not  in  several  generations. 

Upon  the  death  of  Robert  Brown,  which  occurred  on  the 
10th  of  June  last,  in  his  eighty-fifth  year,  it  wras  remark.. I 
that,  next  to  Humboldt,  his  name  adorned  the  list  of  a  greater 
number  of  scientific  societies  than  that  of  any  other  naturalist 
or  philosopher.  It  was  Humboldt  himself  who,  many  years 
ago,  saluted  Brown  with  the  appellation  of  "  Botaniearam 
facile  Princeps  "  ;  and  the  universal  consent  of  botanists  re- 
cognized and  confirmed  the  title.  However  the  meed  of  merit 
in  science  should  be  divided  between  the  most  profound,  and 
the  most  active  and  prolific  minds,  —  between  those  who  di- 
vine and  those  who  elaborate,  —  it  will  probably  be  conceded 
by  all  that  no  one  since  Linnaeus  has  brought  such  rare  saga- 
city to  bear  upon  the  structure,  and  especially  upon  the  ordi- 
nal characters  and  natural  affinities  of  plants,  as  did  Robert 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  iv.  229. 
(1859.) 


284  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Brown.  True,  he  was  fortunate  in  his  time  and  in  his  oppor- 
tunities. Men  of  great  genius,  happily,  often  are,  or  appear 
to  be,  through  their  power  of  turning  opportunities  to  good 
account.  The  whole  herbaria  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks  and  the 
great  collections  which  he  himself  made  around  the  coast  of 
Australia,  in  Flinder's  expedition,  and  which  he  was  able  to 
investigate  upon  the  spot  in  the  four  year^  devoted  to  this  ex- 
ploration, opportunely  placed  in  Brown's  able  hands  as  it  were 
the  vegetation  of  a  new  world,  as  rich  as  it  was  peculiar,  — 
just  at  the  time,  too,  when  the  immortal  work  of  Jussieu  had 
begun  to  be  appreciated,  and  the  European  and  other  ordi- 
nary forms  of  vegetation  had  begun  to  be  understood  in  their 
natural  relations.  The  new,  various,  and  singular  types  which 
render  the  botany  of  New  Holland  so  unlike  all  other,  Mr. 
Brown  had  to  compare  among  themselves,  —  to  unravel  their 
intricacies  with  scarcely  a  clue  to  guide  him,  except  that  which 
his  own  genius  enabled  him  to  construct  in  the  process  of  the 
research,  —  and  to  bring  them  harmoniously  into  the  general 
system  of  botanical  natural  alliance  as  then  understood,  and 
as  he  was  himself  enabled  to  ascertain  and  display  it.  It  was 
the  wonderful  sagacity  and  insight  which  he  evinced  in  these 
investigations,  which,  soon  after  his  return  from  Australia, 
revealed  the  master  mind  in  botanical  science,  and  erelong 
gave  him  the  position  of  almost  unchallenged  eminence,  which 
he  retained,  as  if  without  effort,  for  more  than  half  a  century. 
The  common  observer  must  wonder  at  this  general  recogni- 
tion, during  an  era  of  great  names  and  unequaled  activity,  of 
a  claim  so  rarely,  and  as  it  were  so  reluctantly,  asserted.  For 
brief  and  comparatively  few  —  alas !  how  much  fewer  than 
they  should  have  been !  —  are  Mr.  Brown's  publications. 
Much  the  largest  of  them  is  the  "  Prodromus  of  the  Flora  of 
New  Holland,"  issued  fifty  years  ago,  which  begins  upon  the 
one  hundred  and  forty-fifth  page,  and  which  stopped  short 
at  the  end  of  the  first  volume.  The  others  are  special  papers, 
mostly  of  small  bulk,  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  a  partic- 
ular plant,  or  a  particular  group  or  small  collection  of  plants. 
But  their  simple  titles  seldom  foreshow  the  full  imj^ort  of 
their  contents.     Brown  delighted  to  rise  from  a  special  case  to 


BROWN  AND   HUMBOLDT.  285 

high  and  wide  generalizations  ;  and  was  apt  to  draw  most  im- 
portant and  always  irresistible  conclusions  from  small,  se- 
lected data,  or  particular  points  of  structure,  which  to  ordinary 
apprehension  would  appear  wholly  inadequate  to  the  purpose. 
He  had  unequaled  skill  in  finding  decisive  instances.  So  all 
his  discoveries,  so  simply  and  quietly  announced,  and  all  his 
notes  and  observations  sedulously  reduced  to  the  briefest  ex- 
pression, are  fertile  far  beyond  the  reader's  expectation.  ( !au- 
tious  to  excess,  never  suggesting  a  theory  until  he  had  thor- 
oughly weighed  all  the  available  objections  to  it,  and  never 
propounding  a  view  which  he  did  not  know  how  to  prove,  per- 
haps no  naturalist  ever  taught  so  much  in  writing  so  little, 
or  made  so  few  statements  that  had  to  be  recalled,  or  even 
recast;  and  of  no  one  can  there  be  a  stronger  regret  that  he 
did  not  publish  more. 

With  this  character  of  mind,  and  while  carefully  sounding 
his  way  along  the  deep  places  of  a  science  the  philosophy  and 
ground  of  which  were  forming,  day  by  day,  under  his  own 
and  a  few  contemporary  hands,  Brown  could  not  have  been  a 
voluminous  writer.  He  could  never  have  undertaken  :i  "  Sys- 
tema  Regni  Vegetabilis,"  content  to  do  his  best  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  take  upon  trust  what  he  had  not  the  means  or  the 
time  to  verify, — like  his  contemporary,  De  Candolle,  who 
may  worthily  be  compared  with  Brown  for  genius,  and  con- 
trasted with  him  for  the  enthusiastic  devotion  which  con- 
stantly  impelled  him  to  publication,  and  to  lifelong,  unselected 
herculean  labor,  over  all  the  field,  for  the  general  good. 

Nor  could  Brown  ever  be  brought  to  undertake  a  "  ( renera 
Plantarum,"  like  that  of  Jussieu  ;  although  his  favorable  and 
leisurely  position,  his  vast  knowledge,  his  keen  discrimination, 
and  his  most  compact  mode  of  expression,  especially  indicated 
him  for  the  task.  Evidently,  his  influence  upon  the  progress 
of  botany  might  have  been  greater,  or  at  least  more  imme- 
diate and  more  conspicuous.  Yet,  rightly  to  estimate  that  in- 
fluence now,  we  have  only  to  compare  the  "Genera  Planta- 
rum "  of  Endlicher  with  that  of  Jussieu,  —  separated  as  they 
are  by  the  half-century  which  coincided  with  Brown's  career, 
—  and  mark  how  largely  the  points  of  difference  between  the 


286  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

two,  so  far  as  they  represent  inquiry,  and  genuine  advance- 
ment in  the  knowledge  of  floral  structure,  actually  originated 
with  him.  Still,  after  making  due  allowance  for  a  mind  as 
scrupulous  and  cautious  as  it  was  clear  and  profound,  also  for 
an  unusually  retiring  disposition,  which  even  in  authorship 
seems  to  have  rendered  him  as  sedulous  to  avoid  publicity  as 
most  writers  are  to  gain  it,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  his 
retentiveness  was  excessive  ;  and  that  his  guarded  published 
statements  sometimes  appear  as  if  intended  —  like  the  ana- 
grams of  the  older  mathematicians  and  philosophers  —  rather 
to  record  his  knowledge  than  to  reveal  it.  But  this  was  prob- 
ably only  in  appearance,  and  rather  to  be  attributed  to  his 
sensitive  regard  for  entire  accuracy,  and  his  extreme  dislike 
of  all  parade  of  knowledge,  —  to  the  same  peculiarity  which 
everywhere  led  him  to  condense  announcements  of  great  con- 
sequence into  short  paragraphs  or  foot-notes,  and  to  insert 
the  most  important  facts  in  parentheses,  which  he  who  runs 
over  the  page  may  read,  indeed,  but  which  only  the  most 
learned  and  the  most  reflecting  will  be  apt  to  comprehend. 
In  candor  it  must  be  said  that  his  long  career  has  left  some 
room  for  the  complaint  that  he  did  not  feel  bound  to  exert 
fully  and  continuously  all  his  matchless  gifts  in  behalf  of  the 
science  of  which  he  was  the  most  authoritative  expositor. 

But  if  thus  in  some  sense  unjust  to  himself  and  to  his  high 
calling,  Brown  could  never  be  charged  with  the  slightest  in- 
justice to  any  fellow-laborer.  He  was  scrupulously  careful, 
even  solicitous,  of  the  rights  and  claims  of  others  ;  and  in 
tracing  the  history  of  any  discovery  in  which  he  had  himself 
borne  a  part,  he  was  sure  to  award  to  each  one  concerned  his 
full  due.  If  not  always  communicative,  he  was  kind  and  con- 
siderate to  all.  To  adopt  the  words  of  one  of  his  intimate  as- 
sociates, "  those  who  knew  him  as  a  man  will  bear  unanimous 
testimony  to  the  unvarying  simplicity,  truthfulness,  and  be- 
nevolence of  his  character,"  as  well  as  to  "  the  singular  up- 
rightness of  his  judgment." 

The  remaining  and  the  most  illustrious  name  of  all  —  and 
one  in  its  wide  renown  strongly  in  contrast  with  the  last  — 
has  only  just  now  been  inscribed  on  our  obituary  list. 


BROWN  AND   HUMBOLDT.  287 

The  telegraph  of  last  week  brought  to  us  the  painful  intel- 
ligence that  the  patriarch  of  science,  the  universal  Humboldt, 
died  at  Berlin  on  the  Gth  of  May.  Born  in  1769,  a  year 
more  prolific  in  great  men  than  any  equal  period  of  all  pre- 
ceding time,1  Humboldt  had,  before  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  exhibited  qualities  of  the  very  highest  order, 
and  obtained  a  place  of  acknowledged  celebrity  in  Europe. 
This,  however,  was  the  mere  prelude  to  his  career,  for  with 
the  close  of  that  century  he  commenced,  with  Bonpland,  his 
wonderful  exploration  of  Spanish  America,  which  continued 
during  five  years.  This  journey  must  be  considered  in  all  fu- 
ture time  as,  substantially,  the  scientific  discovery  of  Spanish 
America  ;  and  whether  we  measure  its  results  by  the  amount 
of  knowledge  through  the  wide  fields  of  astronomy,  geog- 
raphy, geology,  mineralogy,  meteorology,  zoology,  botany, 
and  political  economy,  or  the  personal  qualities  by  which 
this  knowledge  was  collected  and  reduced  to  its  place  in  the 
records  of  science,  we  cannot  hesitate  to  rank  the  expedition 
amongst  the  most  important  and  successful  ever  executed  by 
man. 

On  his  return  to  Europe,  in  1805,  Humboldt  was  employed 
several  years  in  reducing  his  immense  collection  of  materials 
to  form  for  publication.  From  that  time  to  his  death,  a  pe- 
riod of  almost  half  a  century,  he  resided  (except  for  a  short 
time,  in  which  he  made  his  journey  to  northern  Asia)  in  Eu- 
rope, mostly  in  France  and  Germany.  The  last  twelve  or  fif- 
teen years  of  this  great  man  were  principally  employed  in  the 
production  of  his  "  Cosmos,"  —  the  crowning  labor  of  his  Long 
life,  the  harvest  of  his  mature  wisdom,  —  a  work  that  could 
not  have  been  produced  by  any  other  man,  simply  because  no 
other  man  possessed  the  treasures,  or  the  key  t<>  the  treasures, 
of  the  various  knowledge  contained  in  it. 

From  his  return  to  Europe  to  his  death,  he  possessed,  indis- 
putably, the  first  place  among  philosophers,  for  the  vast   ex- 

1  Napoleon,  Wellington,  Mehemet  Ali,  Sonlt,  Lannes,  Ney,  Caatle- 
reagh,  Chateaubriand,  Cuvier,  and  Humboldt.  The  name  of  Metteraich 
is  sometimes  added  to  this  list,  probably  incorrectly.     Thai  of  Canning 

does  not  belong  here,  nor  that  of  Mackintosh,  nor  of  Sir  Walter  Soott 


288  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

tent  of  his  acquirements.  Without  doubt,  at  all  times  during 
the  present  century  there  have  been  men  much  greater  than 
Humboldt  in  each  special  department  of  science,  but  no  one 
to  compare  with  him  in  the  number  of  subjects  in  which  he 
had  but  few  superiors,  —  no  one  who  could,  like  him,  bring  all 
the  sciences  into  one  field  of  view,  and  compare  them  as  one 
whole,  through  their  relations  and  dependences.  It  was  prob- 
ably this  extent  of  knowledge  that  led  him  to  generalization 
rather  than  particular  discovery ;  to  trace  connections  and  re- 
lations, rather  than  to  search  for  new  and  minute  facts  or  par- 
ticular laws ;  to  produce  the  "  Cosmos,"  rather  than  discover 
the  atomic  theory  or  the  cellular  formation  of  organic  struc- 
tures. Many  other  men  have  been  masters  of  several  special- 
ties ;  Humboldt  alone  brought  the  whole  range  of  the  physical 
and  natural  sciences  into  one  specialty. 

We  cannot  close  this  brief  notice  of  the  character  and  ca- 
reer of  our  illustrious  associate  without  one  moment's  allusion 
to  his  amiable  moral  nature,  his  love  of  justice,  and  his  supe- 
riority to  all  merely  personal  ends.  So  strong  was  his  desire 
to  give  the  influence  of  his  high  scientific  position  to  the  cause 
of  civilization  and  the  progress  of  knowledge,  by  assisting  all 
applicants  for  his  opinion  and  advice  upon  scientific  subjects, 
that  he  permitted  a  correspondence  to  be  extorted  from  him 
which  in  his  last  days  became  a  load  too  great  to  be  borne, 
and  compelled  a  cry  for  relief  that  had  hardly  subsided  when 
the  news  of  his  death  reached  us. 

Such  is  the  faint  outline  of  a  man  whose  name  is  indelibly 
written  with  those  who  have  been  most  eminent  in  this  won- 
derful age  of  scientific  activity.  The  Academy  claims  the 
privilege,  in  common  with  the  learned  societies  with  which  he 
was  associated  throughout  the  civilized  world,  to  express  its 
sorrow  for  his  death,  and  to  offer  its  tribute  of  honor  to  his 
memory. 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS   DE   CANDOLLE. 

De  Candolle  was  born  at  Geneva  on  the  fourth  day  of 
February,  1778  ;  he  commenced  his  distinguished  career  as  a 
botanist  in  Paris  in  the  later  days  of  the  French  republic; 
he  continued  it  at  Montpellier  until  1810,  when  he  returned 
to  his  native  Geneva,  where  he  died  in  September,  1841, — 
on  the  fifth  day  of  that  month,  according  to  the  opening  para- 
graph of  his  son's  preface  to  this  volume,1  —  on  tin-  twenty- 
fifth  according*  to  the  note  by  the  same  excellent  authority  at 
the  close  of  the  Memoir,  p.  489.  We  cannot  account  for  the 
discrepancy  ;  but  the  former  is  without  doubt  the  true  date. 

The  twenty-one  years  which  have  elapsed  since  his  death 
have  thinned  the  ranks  of  those  who  knew  De  Candolle,  either 
personally  or  by  correspondence.  The  "  Theorie  Elemental  re," 
the  "  Organographies'  and  the  "  Physiologie  Vegetale  "  have 
played  their  part,  and  have  long  ago  passed  out  of  general  use. 
Yet,  thanks  to  their  influence,  but  more  especially  to  the  "  Pro- 
clromus,"  the  name  of  De  Candolle  is  still  perhaps  the  most 
prominent  one  with  the  cultivators  of  the  science  in  general  the 
world  over,  —  is  associated,  not  indeed  with  the  profoundest 
depths,  but  with  a  larger  amount  of  botany  than  any  other 
name  except  that  of  Linnaeus.  These  are  the  personal  mem- 
oirs of  an  industrious,  highly  useful,  prosperous,  and  honored 
life.  Begun  at  middle  age,  perhaps  mainly  for  the  writer's 
own  satisfaction,  or  that  of  his  family,  and  continued  at  con- 
siderable intervals  down  to  his  last  year,  and  evidently  with 
a  growing  expectation  of  future  publication,  —  they  have  ap- 
peared none  too  soon  to  secure  the  most  interested  hut  rapidly 
narrowing  circle  of  readers.     The  outer  circle,  however,  is  as 

1  Memoires  et  Souvenirs  de  Aagostra-Pyramna  De  Candolle.  Eerii  j»ir 
lui-meme.     Geneva  and  Paris,  1862.     (American  Journal  of  Science  and 

Arts,  2  ser.,  xxxv.  1.     18G3.) 


290  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

wide  as  ever,  embracing  all  the  lovers  of  botany  in  our  day, 
to  none  of  whom  can  the  name  of  De  Candolle  be  indifferent. 
The  memoirs  portray  not  so  much  the  botanist  as  the  man. 
Indeed,  the  perusal  was  rather  disappointing  to  us  in  the  for- 
mer regard.  We  expected  to  get  fresh  glimpses  of  his  mind 
at  work  upon  the  problems  of  the  time,  and  to  watch  the  rise 
and  development  of  the  ideas  which  brought  him  fame.  That 
could  be  had,  however,  only  from  letters,  diaries,  or  other  con- 
temporary records :  these  are  only  reminiscences.  On  this 
account,  too,  and  perhaps  because  the  record  was  made  with 
only  a  dim  and  distant  view  to  publication,  the  narrative 
somehow  has  not  all  the  vivacity  and  sprightliness,  nor  the 
ready  flow  of  language,  nor  the  affluence  of  anecdote,  which 
those  who  personally  knew  the  writer  would  have  expected. 
There  are,  however,  many  favorable  specimens  of  De  Can- 
dolle's  powers  of  delineation,  and  some  amusing  anecdotes  or 
interesting  recollections  of  distinguished  savans  and  others. 

The  family  of  De  Candolle  (to  retain  the  style  of  orthogra- 
phy which  is  kept  up  at  Geneva,  in  which  the  De  is  written 
as  a  substantial  part  of  the  name)  is  an  old  and  noble  one  in 
the  Provence  ;  and  a  branch  of  it,  reaching  Naples  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  in  the  suite  of  the  Anjou  princes,  flourished 
there,  under  a  name  gradually  changed  from  Candola  to  Cal- 
dora,  down  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Augustin- 
Pyramus  De  Candolle  derived  one  of  his  baptismal  names 
from  his  ancestor,  Pyramus  de  Candolle,  who,  becoming  prot- 
estant,  fled  from  Provence  to  Geneva  in  the  year  1591,  fol- 
lowing an  uncle  who  had  already  been  established  there  for 
thirty  or  forty  years.  Augustin  was  the  name  of  his  father, 
in  his  earlier  days  a  Genevan  banker,  a  member  of  the  state 
council,  military  syndic,  and,  about  the  time  of  the  outbreak 
of  the  French  Revolution,  Premier  Syndic  of  the  little  repub- 
lic. Displaced  by  an  earlier  conj)  d'etat  just  as  he  was  about 
to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  this  office,  he  had  retired  into  the 
country  just  in  time  to  escape  the  worst  perils  of  the  woful 
imitation  at  Geneva  of  the  reign  of  terror,  in  July,  1794,  al- 
though he  was  condemned  to  death  for  contumacy,  and  his 
property  in  the  city  for  a  time  sequestrated.     The  rest  of  his 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  291 

life  was  peaceful  and  long :  he  attained  the  age  of  eighty-four 
years,  and  died  in  1820. 

Augustin-Pyramus,  the  writer  of  this  autobiography,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  remarkable  in  his  boyhood  rather  for 
quickness  of  learning  than  for  scholarship.  His  earlj  tastes 
were  for  belles-lettres  and  poetry.  Specimens  of  his  poetical 
productions,  both  of  his  youth  and  of  maturer  pears,  are  ap- 
pended to  the  volume.  Of  their  merit  we  cannot  pretend  to 
judge.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  happened  to  attend  a  few 
lectures  of  a  short  course  on  botany,  given  by  Vaucher,  — 
who,  living  to  a  venerable  age,  survived  his  distinguished 
pupil.  Here  he  learned  the  names  of  the  parts  of  the  flower, 
but  nothing  whatever  of  classification,  having  gone  into  the 
country  for  the  summer  before  that  portion  of  the  course  was 
reached.  But  his  curiosity  was  awakened  ;  and  in  his  Leisure 
hours  he  began  to  collect,  observe,  and  even  to  describe  the 
plants  he  met  with  in  his  rambles,  at  first  without  any  botan- 
ical book  whatever  to  guide  him,  and  without  any  idea  beyond 
that  of  amusement  or  relaxation.  The  next  winter,  returning 
to  Geneva  and  to  his  college  studies,  lie  came  to  know  Saus- 
sure,  then  in  his  last  years,  and  half  paralytic.  The  veteran 
physicist,  while  he  endeavored  to  attract  the  young  man  to 
scientific  pursuits,  discouraged  his  predilection  for  botany. 
That  he  regarded  as  quite  unworthy  of  serious  attention. 
Another  summer  passed  upon  the  side  of  the  Jura,  however, 
and  the  perusal  of  Duhamel's  "  Physique  des  Ajbres,"  of  the 
"Researches  upon  Leaves"  of  Pastor  Bonnet  (a  friend  of  his 
father),  also  of  Hale's  "Vegetable  Statics."  which  he  painfully 
translated  from  the  English,  and  finally  the  acquisition  of  the 
"  Linne  de  FEurope  "  of  Gfilibert  —  in  which  the  Linnsean 
artificial  classification  even  then  annoyed  him  by  its  incongru- 
ity with  the  natural  relationships  which  he  already  recognized: 
these  had  by  this  time  fixed  his  fate  before  he  was  at  all  aware 
of  it;  and  perhaps  had  even  determined  in  sonic  sort  his 
characteristics  as  a  botanist. 

An  unexpected  opportunity  to  pass  the  ensuing  winter  in 
Paris  opened  the  way.  This  occurred  through  an  invitation 
from  Dolomieu,  who,  while  young  De  Candolle  was  herboris- 


292  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

ing  in  the  Jura,  had  been  mineralogizing  in  the  Alps,  attended 
by  two  of  De  Candolle's  school-mates,  Picot  and  Pictet.  In 
the  autumn  of  1796  the  three  young  men  proceeded  to  Paris, 
under  the  auspices  of  Dolomieu,  who  secured  for  De  Candolle 
a  lodging  immediately  over  his  own  apartments,  and  presented 
him  to  Desfontaines  and  Deleuze  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes. 
No  botanical  lectures  were  given  at  that  season  of  the  year  ; 
but  De  Candolle  attended  the  principal  scientific  courses  then 
in  progress  ;  among  them  those  of  Fourcroy  and  Vauquelin 
upon  Chemistry,  of  Portal  and  Cuvier  upon  anatomy,  and  of 
Hauy  upon  mineralogy.  It  was  at  this  early  period  that  his 
acquaintance  and  life-long  intimacy  with  the  excellent  Deles- 
sert  family  commenced.  By  a  rather  ingenious  device  he 
contrived  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Lamarck,  but  he 
gained  little  thereby  in  the  way  of  botany,  Lamarck  being  just 
then  wholly  occupied  with  the  discussion  of  chemical  theories. 
When  De  Candolle  returned  to  Geneva  in  the  spring  of  1797, 
Lamarck  sent  by  his  hands  a  volume  to  Senebier,  and  so  he 
came  to  know  his  amiable  countryman,  who,  in  ascertaining 
the  capital  fact  that  plants  decompose  carbonic  acid,  may  be 
said  to  have  laid  the  foundation  of  modern  vegetable  physiol- 
ogy. The  first  genus  which  De  Candolle  established  (in 
1799)  was  Senebiera. 

From  his  narrative  it  would  appear  that,  during  this  sum- 
mer of  1797,  the  ambitious  young  botanist  of  two  years'  stand- 
ing, and  only  eighteen  years  old,  had  not  only  conceived  the 
idea  of  writing  an  elementary  work,  but  actually  traced  the 
plan  and  written  some  chapters  of  it !  He  even  states  that 
from  this  period  date  the  first  observations  and  the  concep- 
tions —  confused  indeed,  but  correct  —  of  the  part  which  the 
abortion  and  the  union  of  organs  play  in  floral  structure,  — 
namely,  the  ideas  which  principally  distinguish  the  "  Theorie 
Elementaire,"  published  fifteen  years  later.  How  far  these 
ideas  were  developed,  however,  we  have  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining. One  would  like  to  see  an  extract  from  this  early 
manuscript,  in  confirmation. 

The  following  winter  he  began  to  study  law  at  Geneva. 
But  with  the  little   state  now  annexed   to   the  great  French 


AUGUSTIN-PY RAMUS  DE    CANDOLLE.  293 

Republic,  the  prospects  were  not  encouraging.  A  career 
must  be  sought  elsewhere.  De  Candolle  determined  to  study 
medicine,  at  the  same  time  prosecuting  his  botanical  studies, 
so  as  to  have  a  double  chance,  by  falling  back  upon  the  for- 
mer in  case  the  latter  should  fail  to  support  him. 

In  this  view,  he  returned  to  Paris  in  the  spring  of  1798, 
just  in  time  to  see  his  patron  Dolomieu  set  out  for  Egypt,  as 
one  of  the  savans  of  that  famous  expedition,  and  to  decline  a 
pressing  invitation  to  accompany  him.  Taking  a  lodging  in 
the  Rue  Copeau,  to  be  near  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  he  at- 
tended the  hospitals  and  medical  lectures,  which  he  disliked, 
but  recompensed  himself  at  the  Garden  of  Plants  with  the 
courses  of  Lacepede,  Lamarck,  Cuvier,  and  Hauy,  omitting 
the  botanical  lectures  as  not  to  his  mind,  but  sedulously  ex- 
amining the  plants  of  the  Garden.  He  renewed  his  acquaint- 
ance with  Lamarck,  at  whose  request  he  wrote  a  few  articles 
(under  the  letter  P)  for  the  "  Dictionaire  Encyclopedique." 
Lamarck  himself  by  this  time  had  quite  abandoned  botany. 

It  was  to  Desfontaines  that  De  Candolle  was  indebted  for 
an  immediate  opportunity  of  beginning  his  botanical  career. 
It  came  about  thus :  LTIeritier,  who  appears  to  have  been 
wealthy,  had  engaged  Redoutc,  the  celebrated  flower-painter, 
to  prepare  drawings  of  all  the  fleshy  plants  in  cultivation,  it 
being  impossible  to  preserve  them  well  in  the  herbarium. 
The  artist  undertaking  to  publish  these  drawings,  applied  to 
Desfontaines  for  a  botanist  to  furnish  the  descriptive  letter- 
press. The  kind  Desfontaines  recommended  De  Candolle, 
and  moreover  offered  to  direct  him  in  the  work.  He  freely 
opened  to  the  young  botanist  his  herbarium  and  library,  and 
allowed  him  to  study  by  his  side ;  indeed  Desfontaines  was 
his  botanical  master  and  fatherly  friend.  The  botanical 
library  of  LTIeritier,  then  much  the  largest  at  Paris,  was 
naturally  at  his  service,  until  the  death  by  assassination,  soon 
afterwards,  of  its  singular  owner.  De  Candolle,  thus  connect- 
ing his  name  and  studies  with  the  work  of  the  unrivaled 
flower-painter,  acquired  thereby,  as  he  remarks,  more  reputa- 
tion than  he  deserved,  and  more  instruction  than  he  expected. 

In   the  course  of  this  same  summer,  of  1798,  an  invitation 


294  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

from  Alexander  Brongniart,  the  mineralogist  (whom  De  Can- 
dolle  had  slightly  known,  through  Dolomieu,  on  his  first  visit 
to  Paris),  connected  him  with  a  small  party  of  naturalists 
who  made  an  excursion  to  Fontainebleau.  Besides  Dejean, 
the  entomologist,  then  very  young,  Cuvier  and  Duineril  were 
of  the  party.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  visited 
Normandy,  with  less  celebrated  companions,  and  formed  his 
first  acquaintance  with  marine  vegetation.  The  next  year  he 
made  a  visit  to  Holland,  to  consult  the  gardens  and  conserva- 
tories of  that  country,  the  richest  in  the  "  plantes  grasses," 
which  then  occupied  his  attention.  One  result  of  this  jour- 
ney was  that  he  induced  his  friend  Benjamin  Delessert  to 
purchase  Burmann's  herbarium,  and  thus  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  the  important  collections  and  library  at  the  Hotel  De- 
lessert which  have  been  so  useful  to  naturalists,  and  so  liber- 
ally devoted  to  their  service.  During  the  winter  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  De  Candolle  elaborated  the  "  Astragalogia,"  his 
first  independent  work  of  any  considerable  consequence,  and 
which  was  published  two  years  later ;  in  this  he  found  oppor- 
tunity to  dedicate  to  his  friend  Delessert  the  Leguminous 
genus  Lessertia. 

About  this  time,  namely,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  he 
became  acquainted  with  Mirbel,  who  had  come  up  to  Paris 
from  the  south  of  France,  where  he  had  been  a  pupil  of  Ea- 
mond.  Instead  of  translating  De  Candolle's  remarks,  we  may 
as  well  give  them  in  the  original. 

"  II  [Mirbel]  savait  alors  peu  de  botanique,  mais  il  annoncait  de 
l'esprit  et  des  talents.  Je  me  liai  avec  lui.  II  venait  souvent  de- 
jeuner chez  moi.  Nous  causions  botanique  ;  j'avais  deux  ou  trois 
ans  d'avance  sur  lui,  et  j'etais  naturellement  communicatif  ;  je  lui 
fis  parts  de  plusieurs  id£es,  nouvelles  pour  lui,  et  dont  quelques-unes 
l'^taient  pour  le  science.  Elles  parurent  l'interresser,  car  j'en  retrou- 
vai  une  grande  partie  dans  les  elements  de  physiologie  qu'il  publia 
peu  d'annees  apres  ;  telles  sont  la  distinction  des  feuilles  sdminales 
et  primordiales,  l'importance  de  Tetude  des  nervures  principales  des 
feuilles,  etc.  Appele  a  rendre  un  compte  succinct  de  cette  ouvrage 
dans  le  '  Bulletin  philomathique,'  je  me  divertis  a  ne  citer  que  les 
ide*es  que  j'avais  suggerees  a  l'auteur  ;  je  n'en  revindiquai  aucune, 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  295 

et  ne  sais  pas  meme  s'il  s'est  apercu  de  cette  petite  malice.  Je  dois 
dire  que  je  ne  pretendis  point,  meme  alors,  que  se  fut  un  plagiat 
volontaire,  mais  il  arrive  souvent  dans  les  sciences  qu'on  s'appropie, 
sans  s'en  douter,  ce  qu'on  a  entendu  dire. 

"  Cette  circonstance  eveilla  ma  propre  attention  sur  la  justice  ri- 
goureuse  que  j'ai  desire  rendre  a  tous  :  la  force  de  ma  memoire,  et 
surtout  le  soin  que  j'ai  eu  tres-jeune  de  noter  les  faits  et  les  idees 
nouvelles  que  j'entendais  dans  la  conversation,  m'ont  mis  a  meme  de 
pouvoir,  bien  des  annees  apres  une  conversation,  citer  exactement 
celui  de  qui  j'avais  appris  un  fait  ou  une  opinion  quelconque.  Cette 
habitude  de  justice  m'a  fait  beaucoup  d'amis,  et  j'ai  eu  souvent  des 
remerciements  de  gens  cites  par  moi,  qui  eux-memes  avaient  oublie 
ce  qu'ils  m'avaient  dit."      (pp.  91,  92.) 

To  De  Candolle's  credit  it  must  be  said,  not  only  that  his 
career  was  remarkably  free  from  controversies  about  priority 
and  reclamations,  but  that  his  example  and  precepts,  his  scru- 
pulous care  to  render  due  credit  to  every  contributor,  his  re- 
spect for  unpublished  names  communicated  to  his  own  or 
recorded  in  other  herbaria,  and  the  like,  have  been  most 
influential  in  establishing  both  the  law  and  the  ethics  which 
prevail  in  systematic  botany  (more  fully,  or  from  an  earlier 
period  than  in  the  other  departments  of  natural  history), 
and  which  have  secured  such  general  cooperation  and  harmo- 
nious relations  among  its  votaries. 

In  these  early  days  De  Candolle  was  a  good  deal  occupied 
with  vegetable  physiology;  the  results  are  contained  in  his 
papers  "  on  the  pores  in  the  bark  of  leaves,"  i.  e.  stomata ;  on 
the  vegetation  of  the  Mistletoe  ;  and  on  his  experiments  rela- 
tive to  the  influence  of  light  on  certain  points,  mainly  those 
which  exhibit  strikingly  the  change  in  the  position  of  their 
leaves  at  night,  which  has  been  called  the  sleep  of  plants.  1  he 
account  of  these  experiments,  in  which  he  caused  certain  plants 
to  acknowledge  an  artificial  night  and  day,  when  read  before 
the  Institute,  gave  him  considerable  eclat,— and  probably 
also  the  compliment  of  being  named  one  of  the  three  candi- 
dates to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Academy  of  Sciences  left  by 
the  death  of  L'Heritier.  A  mere  compliment,  for  the  contest, 
of  course,  was  between  Labillardiere  and  Beauvois.     In  the 


296  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

canvass  De  Candolle  called  upon  Adanson,  then  very  aged, 
and  in  his  dotage  more  eccentric  than  ever. 

If  not  chosen  into  the  Institute,  which  indeed  he  could  not 
pretend  to  expect,  De  Candolle  was  in  that  year  made  a  mem- 
ber of  that  active  association,  —  "  la  pepiniere  de  l'Academie 
des  Sciences,"  —  the  Societe  Philomathique,  and  was  soon 
placed  on  the  committee  in  charge  of  its  Bulletin.  This 
brought  him  into  intimate  connection  with  such  colleagues 
as  Brongniart  (Alex.),  Dumeril,  Cuvier,  Biot,  Lacroix,  and 
Sylvestre. 

"  We  met,  at  each  other's  lodgings,  on  Saturday  evenings,  after  the 
session  of  the  society,  to  read  and  to  discuss  the  morceaux  intended 
for  the  Bulletin,  and  when  our  labor  was  finished  we  took  tea  to- 
gether and  chatted  familiarly.  As  one  by  one  we  exchanged  the 
celibate  for  the  married  state,  our  wives  were  introduced  ;  —  then 
we  no  longer  read  our  extracts,  and  at  length  we  gave  over  making 
the  Bulletin,  but  we  kept  up  our  Saturday  evening  reunions.  It  was 
in  consequence  of  this  that  Cuvier  continued  long  afterwards  his 
Saturday  evening  receptions ;  but  I  return  to  the  year  1800." 

By  De  Candolle's  account  he  was  by  about  ten  years  the 
youngest  member  of  this  reunion.  Yet  he  has  the  name  of 
Biot  and  Dumeril  on  his  list,  both  of  whom  survived  him  for 
twenty  years  ;  and  Biot  was  really  not  quite  four  years  his 
senior,  and  Dumeril  only  five. 

As  a  member  of  this  select  circle  of  intimate  friends  and 
zealous  savans,  all  then  pressing  on  to  the  very  highest  dis- 
tinction, we  may  well  believe  that  the  ambitious  young  bota- 
nist enjoyed,  and  improved  to  the  full,  such  golden  opportuni- 
ties, that  he  learned  something  of  every  branch  of  natural 
history,  and  also  —  what  was  no  less  useful  at  Paris  —  "a 
connaitre  les  homines  et  les  mobiles  caches  de  bien  des 
choses." 

De  Candolle  sketches  the  following  portraits  of  three  of  his 
associates,  Dumeril,  Cuvier,  and  Lacroix.     And  first  of 

"  The  excellent  Dumeril.  He  was  the  ideal  of  the  frank  charac- 
ter which  we  attribute  to  the  Picards.  He  was  a  sincere  and  devoted 
friend,  always  ready  to  second  and  render  any  service  to  me  and 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  297 

mine.  No  cloud  ever  threw  a  shadow  over  our  alliance,  which  be- 
came closer  yet  when,  at  a  later  period,  the  friendly  connection  of 
my  wife  with  the  widowed  Madame  Say  determined  the  latter  to 
marry  Dumeril.  He  was  chief  demonstrator  in  the  anatomical  de- 
partment at  the  School  of  Medicine,  but  he  became  professor  and 
member  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  Dumeril  was  remarkable 
rather  for  the  clearness  of  his  ideas,  and  the  variety  and  accuracy  of 
his  knowledge  in  natural  history,  than  for  theoretical  principles.  He 
was  a  practical  man,  whose  elementary  works  had  considerable  suc- 
cess, but  who,  after  having  had  a  glimpse  of  some  of  the  laws  of  or- 
ganic symmetry,  such  as  the  analogy  of  the  skull  to  vertebrae,  seemed 
to  have  collapsed  before  their  immensity.  His  principal  services  to 
science  were  in  the  way  of  teaching,  and  in  the  encouragement  which 
he  so  well  knew  how  to  give  to  the  young.  The  heart  in  this  kind 
of  influence  is  more  essential  than  the  head,  and  although  DumeriTs 
judgment  was  clear  and  quick,  he  was  much  more  remarkable  for  his 
moral  qualities. 

"  Cuvier,  who  was  from  the  beginning  the  intimate  friend  of  Du- 
meril, was  entirely  different ;  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  two 
people  who  were  less  analogous.  Born  at  Montbeliard  and  brought 
up  at  Stuttgart,  Cuvier  had  something  of  the  gravity  and  even  of  the 
obstinacy  of  the  German.  Placed  for  some  time  in  an  inferior  posi- 
tion, he  was  forced  from  his  youth  to  make  up  for  it  by  the  dignity 
of  his  manner;  but  the  world  of  savans,  at  least,  will  never  forget 
his  sojourn  in  Normandy,  where  he  made  those  beautiful  investiga- 
tions on  the  molluscs  which  were  the  beginning  of  his  fame.  Called 
afterwards  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  as  assistant  to  the  aged  Mer- 
trud,  he  owed  this  position  to  the  friendship  of  Geoffroy  ;  but  he 
soon  surpassed  his  patron.  In  consequence  of  this  position  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Institute  from  its  foundation,  and  quickly  acquired 
the  reputation  which  results  from  great  talent  united  to  a  skillful 
ambition.  At  the  time  when  the  office  of  secretary  was  annual  he 
foresaw  it  would  become  perpetual,  and  arranged  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  fill  one  secretaryship  almost  continually,  either  himself  or  by 
others  ;  so  that  he  found  himself  in  position  to  have  it  without  con- 
test when  it  became  permanent  and  well  paid.  These  first  steps 
being  taken,  all  places  fell  to  him  as  of  themselves,  and  we  saw  him 
successively  Professor  of  the  Ecoles  Centrales,  of  the  College  de 
France,  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Inspector,  then  Councillor,  then 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  Councillor  of  State,  Baron,  Peer  of 
France,  etc.,  etc.     His  talent,  his  aptitude  for  knowing  and  doing 


298  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

everything,  made  him  skillful  in  every  function  ;  he  brought  to  it 
method,  order,  facility  for  administration,  a  knowledge  of  details 
and  of  the  whole,  a  sincere  love  of  justice,  and  a  disinterestedness 
which  caused  him  to  be  noticed  and  admired. 

"  Cuvier  might  justly  be  compared  to  Haller,  whom  he  resembled 
as  much  as  the  difference  of  nation  and  time  would  allow.  Both 
astonished  by  their  extraordinary  capacity  for  learning,  knowing 
equally  well  natural  and  historical  science,  greedy  of  positive  facts 
on  all  subjects,  endowed  with  wonderful  memory  and  a  remarkable 
spirit  of  order,  capable  of  great  labor,  and  yet  gifted  with  much  fa- 
cility. But  at  the  side  of  these  admirable  qualities  it  might  be 
observed  that  neither  had  an  inventive  genius  ;  they  observed  facts 
well,  but  never  thought  to  unite  them  by  a  theory  that  would  divine 
or  discover  others.  Their  characters  corresponded  even  outside  of 
science  :  both  loved  power,  and  sacrificed  precious  time  to  the  desire 
of  political  advancement ;  both  loved  reading  to  a  passion,  even  at 
the  hours  destined  ordinarily  for  meals  and  domestic  intercourse  ; 
both  were  cold  and  haughty  in  conversation  with  those  who  inspired 
them  with  no  interest,  piquant  and  profound  to  those  whom  they 
thought  worthy  of  it ;  finally  both  had  a  certain  contempt  for  that 
class  of  ideas  called  liberal,  and  held  to  the  aristocratic  party.  The 
great  size  of  their  heads  gave  them  a  certain  physical  resemblance. 
In  one  word,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  two  celebrated  men  more 
exactly  alike,  and  the  lovers  of  metempsychosis  might  say,  if  the 
epochs  would  permit,  that  the  soul  of  Haller  had  passed  without 
change  into  the  body  of  Cuvier. 

"  To  me  personally,  Cuvier  was  wellnigh  perfection.  .  .  .  Not- 
withstanding the  great  difference  in  our  respective  views  of  life  and 
of  politics,  and  even  of  science  in  some  theoretical  matters,  our  in- 
timacy was  never  clouded,  nor  was  it  disturbed  by  his  quarrel  with 
Geoffroy,  although  he  knew  that  my  opinions  inclined  toward  those 
of  the  latter. 

"  The  geometrician  Lacroix  was  a  genuine  specimen  of  the  philoso- 
pher of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  republican  of  the  school  of  Con- 
dorcet,  an  enemy  to  the  great  and  their  hangers-on,  uniting  the 
gaiety  of  a  child  with  the  moroseness  of  a  disappointed  old  man,  — 
the  ease,  grace,  and  kindness  of  a  warm-hearted  gentleman  with  the 
gruffness  of  a  grumbler.  He  was  a  thoroughly  excellent  man,  but  a 
stranger  to  the  life  of  the  world  around  him.  The  character  of  the 
misanthrope  in  Moliere,  which  I  supposed  purely  imaginary,  I  found 
completely  realized  when  I  knew  Lacroix." 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  299 

An  episode  of  fifteen  days,  during  which  De  Candolle,  to 
his  great  surprise,  had  political  functions  to  perform,  —  being 
appointed  one  of  the  three  notables  of  the  department  of  the 
Leman,  in  a  representation  of  all  the  departments  of  the 
French  Republic,  which  the  First  Consul  called  together,  — 
gives  us  the  first  glimpse  of  Bonaparte  in  this  narrative  ;  and 
De  Candolle's  account  of  the  interviews  with  him,  and  with 
his  minister  of  police,  Fouche,  is  well  worth  preserving.  With 
this  transient  exception,  we  have  only  the  most  incidental 
allusions  to  public  affairs  during  the  eventful  years  of  the 
Consulate,  the  Empire,  and  the  Restoration. 

We  pass  by,  also,  the  interesting  account  which  De  Can- 
dolle gives  of  the  doings  of  Delessert  and  himself,  in  the 
establishment  and  administration  of  the  Philanthropic  Society, 
which  grew  out  of  the  introduction  by  them  of  Count  Rum- 
ford's  economical  soups,  distributed  to  the  poor.  These  hon- 
orable undertakings  brought  the  two  friends  into  relations 
with  Rumford  himself  when  he  came  to  reside  at  Paris.  In- 
deed Delessert,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  learn,  became  one 
of  Count  Rumford's  executors.  The  admiration  with  which 
Rumford's  writings  and  economical  inventions  had  inspired 
the  two  young  philanthropists  was  much  diminished  upon 
personal  acquaintance. 

"  It  was  after  his  plans,"  writes  De  Candolle,  "that  we  had 
constructed  our  furnaces,  after  his  receipts  that  we  made  our 
soups,  upon  his  advice  that  we  were  induced  to  substitute 
such  assistance  for  gifts  of  money." 

So  when  Rumford  was  expected  at  Paris,  they  congratulated 
themselves  upon  such  an  acquisition,  went  to  meet  him  on  his 
arrival,  and  brought  him  to  dine  with  them. 

"  We  found  him  a  dry,  methodical  man,  who  spoke  of  benevolence 
as  a  discipline,  and  of  the  poor  as  we  should  not  have  dared  to  speak 
of  vagabonds.  It  is  necessary,  said  he,  to  punish  those  who  give 
alms  ;  the  poor  must  be  forced  to  work,  etc.,  etc.  Great  was  our 
astonishment  at  hearing  such  maxims  :  however,  we  did  our  utmost 
to  profit  by  his  advice  in  practical  matters.  I  had  a  good  deal  <>t' 
intercourse  with  him,  one  among  others  odd  enough.  Mademoiselle 
Rath,  a  Genevese    painter,  and    like    ourselves    enthusiastic    about 


300  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Rumford,  wished  to  paint  his  portrait  to  be  engraved.  M.  Jay, 
her  relation  and  my  friend,  then  director  of  the  '  Decade  Philoso- 
phique,'  wished  to  put  it  into  his  journal,  and  asked  me  for  a  notice 
of  M.  Rumford  to  accompany  it.  Knowing  little  of  his  former  life, 
1  asked  M.  Rumford  himself  for  a  few  notes  ;  he  promised  them,  and 
appointed  an  interview  at  his  house  to  give  them  to  me.  I  went : 
what  was  my  astonishment  when  he  presented  an  article  entirely 
complete  and  quite  eulogistic.  That  was  not  all ;  he  required  me 
to  copy  it  on  the  spot,  not  wishing  to  leave  the  manuscript  in  his 
writing  in  my  hands.  I  thought  the  proceeding  rather  indelicate, 
and  the  distrust  not  very  polite.  I  deferred  however  to  the  wishes 
of  a  man  for  whom  I  had  always  had  until  then  the  highest  respect ; 
I  obeyed  :  I  transmitted  to  the  '  Decade '  the  written  article,  with 
small  additions,  and  I  have  never  mentioned  until  after  the  death  of 
Rumford,  not  even  until  now,  the  secret  of  its  origin,  thinking  that 
this  trait  would  not  raise  him  in  estimation. 

"  M.  Rumford  settled  in  Paris,  where  he  afterwards  married 
Madame  Lavoisier,  the  widow  of  the  celebrated  chemist.  I 
saw  something  of  both,  and  I  never  knew  an  odder  union.  M. 
Rumford  was  cold,  imperturbable,  obstinate,  egotistical,  prodigiously 
occupied  with  the  material  part  of  life,  and  in  inventions  in  the 
smallest  matters.  He  was  engrossed  with  chimneys',  lamps,  coffee- 
pots, and  windows  made  after  a  peculiar  fashion  ;  and  he  contra- 
dicted his  wife  twenty  times  a  day  about  the  management  of  her 
housekeeping.  Madame  Lavoisier-Rumford  .  .  .  was  a  woman 
of  very  decided  character.  A  widow  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years, 
she  had  been  in  the  habit  of  having  her  own  way,  and  did  not  like 
to  be  contradicted.  Her  mind  was  broad,  her  will  strong,  her  char- 
acter masculine.  She  was  capable  of  lasting  friendship,  and  I  could 
always  congratulate  myself  on  her  kindness  to  me.  Her  second 
marriage  was  soon  disturbed  by  grotesque  scenes.  Separation  was 
better  for  both  than  union.  He  got  a  pension,  which  he  needed, 
but  which  death  prevented  his  long  enjoying.  She  obtained  liberty 
and  the  title  of  Countess :  both  were  satisfied.  He  could  now 
arrange  the  house  at  Auteuil  as  he  liked  :  she  continued  to  receive 
a  select  circle  at  hers." 

Of  this  racy  and  unflattering  sketch  we  have  only  to  re- 
mark that,  however  it  may  have  been  as  to  the  pension,  Rum- 
ford's  pecuniary  means,  as  shown  by  his  endowments  and 
legacies  in  this  country,  were  more  considerable  than  De 
Candolle  supposed. 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  301 

Apropos  to  reminiscences  of  distinguished  savans,  we  look 
forward  a  year  or  two  in  the  narrative,  and  select  the  fol- 
lowing. And  first,  of  a  person  who  was  well  known  to  a  past 
generation,  and  to  some  who  still  survive,  at  Philadelphia. 

"  Joseph  Correa  de  Serra  was  then  about  fifty-five  or  sixty  years 
old.  He  was  of  an  ancient  family  in  Portugal,  which  had  produced 
several  literary  men.  After  studying  at  the  University  of  Coimbra 
he  was  transferred  to  Rome,  where  he  pursued  theological  studies 
for  a  dozen  years  at  the  College  of  the  Sapienza,  but  which  he  left 
with  a  knowledge  of  many  things  beside  theology.  Returning  to 
Portugal,  he  was  made  governor  to  the  hereditary  Prince,  Secretary 
to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  etc.,  and  became  a  very  influential 
person,  both  on  account  of  his  talents  and  on  account  of  the  position 
of  his  pupil,  who  it  was  supposed  would  become  king  on  attaining 
his  majority,  as  his  mother  was  only  regent.  Correa  was  made 
Minister ;  and  his  first  act  was  to  overthrow  the  Inquisition.  But 
the  Prince  died  just  as  he  was  coming  of  age,  and  Correa  was  left 
exposed  to  the  hatred  and  jealousy  of  the  priests.  After  a  while  he 
obtained  permission  to  go  to  England,  where  he  lived  in  the  society 
of  the  savans  of  which  Sir  Joseph  Banks'  house  was  the  centre. 
Afterwards  he  moved  to  Paris,  where  he  also  lived  among  savans 
and  men  of  letters,  and  where  he  showed  the  most  noble  character 
when  the  seizure  of  Portugal  by  Bonaparte  deprived  him  of  all  his 
resources.  He  possessed  the  singular  faculty  of  knowing  everything 
apparently  without  labor.  It  is  only  the  people  of  the  south  who 
can  thus  combine  great  facility  with  profound  idleness.  The  latter 
prevented  his  publishing  anything  beyond  small  dissertations,  quite 
below  his  talents  ;  but  in  conversation  all  his  various  knowledge  and 
his  ingenious  views  were  charmingly  exhibited.  In  these  days 
Humboldt  and  Cuvier  often  came  to  my  lodgings,  where  they  occa- 
sionally met  Correa.  Although  their  celebrity  was  far  above  his, 
and  justly  so,  on  account  of  their  published  works,  yet  Correa  always 
got  the  advantage  over  them  ;  and  it  was  by  no  means  the  leasl  <>f 
the  enjoyments  of  our  sociable  little  dinners  to  see  the  sort  of  defer- 
ence, and  even  fear,  which  Cuvier  and  Humboldt  exhibited  in  the 
announcement  of  their  opinions  before  Correa,  who.  with  the  grace 
and  sly  maliciousness  of  a  cat,  would  at  once  expose  their  weak  Bides. 
Like  them,  he  was  familiar  with  all  the  historical  and  natural  sci- 
ences, and  he  used  his  vast  stores  of  knowledge  with  a  severe  logic 
and  rare  sagacity.     He  spent  many  hours  in  my  herbarium  ;  where 


302  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

the  subtle  perspicacity  which  he  brought  to  bear  at  a  glance  upon 
plants,  often  wholly  new  to  him,  taught  me  much  of  the  art  of  ob- 
serving, and  especially  of  combining  observations  in  botany.  To 
such  talents  he  joined  a  lofty  soul  and  a  heart  devoted  to  friendship. 
It  was  a  great  grief  to  me  when,  at  over  sixty  years  of  age,  he  quitted 
Europe  to  rejoin  in  Brazil  the  king  who  had  persecuted  him  ;  but 
he  forgot  all  his  wrongs  when  his  sovereign  became  unfortunate. 
Correa  died  when  ambassador  to  the  United  States." 

The  following,  of  a  somewhat  later  period,  is  abridged  from 
De  Candolle's  account  of  the  Societe  d'Arcueil :  — 

"  Its  founder  was  the  excellent  and  illustrious  Berthollet,  who,  then 
living  in  his  country  residence  at  Arcueil,  .  .  .  invited  thither,  once 
a  month,  a  few  young  savans,  by  way  of  encouraging  their  efforts. 
His  colleagues  MM.  de  la  Place  and  Chaptal,  also  senators  and 
members  of  the  Institute,  were,  so  to  say,  vice-presidents  of  this 
little  reunion.  Humboldt  also  had  a  place,  and  the  parterre  was 
composed  of  Biot,  Thenard,  Gay-Lussac,  Descotils,  Malus,  Amedee 
Berthollet,  and  myself.  Later,  Berard  and  Francois  de  la  Roche 
were  admitted.  [And  finally  Arago,  Poisson,  and  Dulong,  adds  the 
editor,  who  notes  that  the  last  volume  of  the  "  Memoires  d'Arcueil " 
was  published  in  1817.]  The  association  was  devoted  to  the  physical 
and  chemical  sciences.  I  was  admitted  in  view  of  the  applications 
of  vegetable  physiology  to  chemistry ;  and  I  contributed  some  arti- 
cles upon  this  subject  to  the  '  Memoires  d'Arcueil,'  namely,  my 
Note  on  the  cause  of  the  direction  of  stems  towards  the  light,  my 
Memoir  on  the  influence  of  absolute  height  upon  vegetation,  and 
upon  the  geographical  or  topographical  distribution  of  plants,  and, 
later,  one  upon  double  flowers,  especially  of  the  Ranunculacece. 
The  first  of  these  writings  was  a  simple  and  clear  solution  [although 
an  incorrect  one,  as  it  proves.  —  Eds.]  of  a  problem  which  was 
deemed  insoluble  ;  the  second  reduced  to  just  proportions  the  ex- 
aggerations of  Humboldt  upon  the  influence  of  elevation  ;  the  third 
was  an  essay  connected  with  the  observations  of  the  degenerescence 
of  organs,  to  which  my  '  Theorie  Elementaire  '  was  devoted.  .   .   . 

•'  We  commonly  made  our  rendezvous  at  Thenard's,  and  went 
together  to  Arcueil,  as  happy  with  this  run  into  the  country  as 
schoolboys  out  for  a  holiday.  We  walked  about  in  this  pleasant 
villa,  and  relished  the  society  of  our  leaders.  Nothing  can  fully 
describe  the  good-nature  and  simplicity  of  M.  Berthollet  and  even 
of  Madame.     They  were  with  us  as  parents  with  their  children,  and 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  303 

we  made  ourselves  at  home  in  the  house  with  perfect  abandon.  M. 
Berthollet  was  quite  fat  and  very  full-blooded.  He  feared  heat  so 
much  that  he  wore  clothes  only  out  of  respect  to  society,  and  at  night 
he  slept  entirely  uncovered  upon  his  bed.  '  What,'  said  we,  *  even 
in  winter  ?  '  '  Oh,'  he  answered,  '  when  it  is  very  cold  I  spread  my 
pocket-handkerchief  over  my  feet.'  This  man,  so  high  in  social 
rank  and  scientific  celebrity,  bore  contradiction  unusually  well,  and 
loved  above  all  things  truth.  When  the  first  works  of  Berzelius 
upon  definite  proportions  became  known  at  Paris,  I  was  very  much 
taken  with  them,  and  although  they  were  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
principles  of  statical  chemistry  he  sustained,  I  did  not  fear  to  tell 
M.  Berthollet  the  high  opinion  I  had  of  them.  Far  from  taking 
offense  at  this  preference,  he  encouraged  me  to  study  the  writings 
of  Berzelius. 

"  M.  de  la  Place  was  of  quite  a  different  character.  He  had  the 
dryness  of  a  geometrician  and  the  haughtiness  of  a  parvenu.  Over 
and  above  these  defects  of  manner,  he  was  a  man  of  honor  and 
worth.  .  .  .  He  often  seconded  me,  although  in  truth  he  thought 
very  little  of  natural  history.  In  our  meetings  he  often  had  little 
quarrels  with  M.  Berthollet,  and  would  think  to  silence  him  by  ray- 
ing. *  But  you  see,  M.  Berthollet,  what  I  say  to  you  is  mathematics.' 
'  Eh,  par  Dieu,  what  I  say  to  you  is  physics,'  answered  the  other, 
'  and  that  is  quite  as  good.'  .  .  .  Humboldt  also  came  from  time  to 
time  ;  but  he  added  much  of  life  and  interest  when  he  appeared. 
He  affected  to  pass  himself  as  the  creator  of  the  science  of  botanical 
geography,  to  which  he  has  only  added  certain  facts,  and  the  ex- 
aggeration of  a  true  theory  so  as  to  render  it  almost  false.  He 
never  quite  pardoned  me  for  having,  in  the  preface  to  my  memoir 
on  the  geography  of  the  plants  of  France,  cited  those  who  before 
him  had  occupied  themselves  with  geographical  botany,  although  in 
this  exposition  I  had,  in  truth,  much  amplified  his  share. 

"  Among  the  other  members  of  the  society  of  whom  I  have  not 
yet  spoken,  I  would  chiefly  mention  Thenard.  who  was  then  com- 
mencing a  career  which  has  since  become  very  brilliant.  His  activ- 
ity, his  ardor,  and  his  uprightness  pleased  me  very  much.  ...  I 
could  draw,  in  an  anecdote,  the  contrast  between  the  characters  of 
Thenard  and  Descotils.  .  .  .  It  was  then  very  difficult  to  correspond 
with  England,  on  account  of  the  continental  blockade.  I  happened 
to  be  the  first  to  receive,  by  a  letter  from  Dr.  Marcet,  the  news  of 
Davy's  great  discovery  in  decomposing  the  fixed  alkalies.  By  a 
happy  chance,  it  reached  me  on  the  morning  of  the  day  of  our  meet- 


304  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

ing.  I  hastened  to  our  usual  rendezvous,  and  could  not  wait  for 
the  session  to  impart  so  important  a  discovery.  I  read  my  letter  to 
the  members  present.  Thenard  was  enthusiastic  ;  he  ran  about  the 
room  like  a  madman,  crying  out,  '  It  is  beautiful  !  it  is  admirable  !  ' 
Then  turning  to  me,  and  laying  hold  of  his  arm  :  '  Look  here,'  said 
he,  '  I  would  give  this  arm  to  have  made  this  discovery.'  Descotils, 
tranquilly  buried  in  an  arm-chair,  said  also,  but  in  quite  another 
tone  :  *  It  is  very  fine ;  but  I  would  not  give  the  end  of  my  little 
finger  to  have  made  it.'  " 

We  pass  over  all  De  Candolle's  account  of  his  life  and  do- 
mestic affairs  during  his  residence  at  Paris,  his  particular  in- 
vestigations, his  excursions,  in  Switzerland  and  elsewhere,  — 
even  the  memorable  one  in  the  Jura  with  Biot  and  Bonpland. 
in  which  he  led  the  party  into  a  position  of  imminent  danger, 
causing  Bonpland  to  bemoan  his  hard  fate  in  having  to  perish 
on  such  a  mole-hill  as  the  Jura,  after  having  safely  climbed 
Chimborazo  (p.  154)  ;  —  his  engagement  and  marriage  (the 
latter  in  April,  1802),  with  Mademoiselle  Torras,  of  a  Gen- 
evan family  resident  in  Paris ;  of  the  foundation  of  his  her- 
barium by  the  fortunate  acquisition  of  that  of  L'Heritier ;  — 
of  the  first  course  of  lectures  which  he  gave,  at  the  College 
de  France,  as  a  substitute  for  Cuvier,  during  the  temporary 
absence  of  the  latter,  giving  a  course  of  vegetable  physiology 
in  place  of  one  on  general  natural  history  ;  —  how  he  prepared 
to  take  the  degree  of  M.  D.  in  order  to  qualif}T  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  the  chair  of  medical  natural  history  at  the 
School  of  Medicine,  then  vacant ;  but  how  Richard,  who  dis- 
liked him  because  he  was  a  pupil  of  Desfontaines,  as  De  Can- 
dolle  says,  instigated  Jussieu  to  offer  himself  for  this  chair, 
upon  which,  of  course,  De  Candolle  withdrew,  but  nevertheless 
wrote  and  sustained  as  a  thesis  for  the  doctorate,  his  Essay 
on  the  Medical  Properties  of  Plants,  compared  with  their  ex- 
terior forms  and  their  natural  classification.  He  bore  his 
examination  creditably,  received  his  diploma,  and,  the  same 
evening,  a  private  mock  inauguration,  which,  considering  the 
parties  engaged  in  it,  must  have  been  irresistibly  comical. 

"  Dumeril  invited  to  his  house  my  family,  my  comrades  of  the 
*  Bulletin  Philomathique,'  and  even  some  of  the  Professors  of  the 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  305 

Ecole  de  Medicine.  This  grave  assembly  amused  themselves  in  giv- 
ing me  the  reception,  in  full  dress,  from  the  '  Malade  imaginaire.' 
It  was  a  curious  sight  to  see  Cuvier,  Lacroix,  Biot,  and  other  learned 
Academicians  rehearsing  the  scene  from  Moliere  in  the  costumes  of 
the  Comedie  Francaise.  They  had  smothered  me  in  an  immense 
sugar-loaf  paper  cap  ornamented  all  over  with  little  lamps  all  alight. 
In  the  motion  of  bowing  I  constantly  expected  to  be  set  on  lire. 
But  the  acolyte  who  conducted  me  would  then  press  a  sponge  well 
filled  with  water  borne  on  the  top  of  the  cap,  and  the  water  ran 
down,  not  upon  the  lamps,  but  upon  my  head,  —  the  audience 
laughing  uproariously  at  my  surprise." 

Let  us  pass  on  to  more  serious  matters,  and  rapidly  sketch 
the  outlines  of  the  scientific  career  now  fairly  and  promisingly 
opening.  For  the  event  which  fixed  De  Candolle  in  his  true 
field  of  labor  was  his  arrangement  (in  1802)  with  Lamarck  — 
who  had  long  since  abandoned  botany  —  to  prepare  a  new 
edition  of  the  "  Flore  Francaise."  The  arrangement  was  a 
favorable  one  to  De  Candolle,  both  financially  and  scientifi- 
cally. The  new  edition  was  of  course  an  entirely  new  work, 
one  particularly  adapted  to  De  Candolle's  genius,  and  which 
gave  him  at  once  a  wide  reputation.  Indirectly  this  work 
gave  origin  to  the  botanical  explorations  of  the  provinces  of 
France,  under  the  auspices  of  the  government,  which  engaged 
much  of  De  Candolle's  attention  from  the  summer  of  1806 
until  he  ceased  to  be  a  French  subject. 

And  now,  the  death  of  old  Adanson  left  a  vacancy  in  the 
botanical  section  of  the  Institute,  which  De  Candolle  might 
hope  to  fill.  But  parties  and  personal  dislikes,  as  it  appears, 
were  not  unknown  nor  uninfluential  in  the  Paris  of  half  a 
century  ago.  Indeed  De  Candolle  (let  us  hope  without  suf- 
ficient grounds)  roundly  charges  lamentable  weakness  to  La- 
marck, and  less  creditable  motives  to  Fourcrov  and  even  to 
Jussieu,  in  respect  to  the  nomination  and  canvass ;  while  of 
the  Abbe  Hauy  he  relates,  to  his  credit,  that,  upon  being  ap- 
proached with  the  suggestion  that  his  conscience  should  pie- 
vent  his  voting  for  a  protestant,  he  replied  that  he  was  very 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  show  that  he  never  mixed  up  relig- 
ious opinions  with  scientific  judgments.     Palisot  de  Beauvois, 


306  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

the  rival  candidate,  was  elected,  in  spite  of  the  hearty  support 
De  Candolle  received  from  his  comrades  of  the  "  Bulletin 
Philomathique  "  and  his  eminent  associates  of  the  Soeiete 
d'Arcueil,  Berthollet,  Chaptal,  La  Place,  Cuvier,  etc.,  —  to 
say  nothing  of  his  scientific  superiority  over  his  rival,  which 
De  Candolle  naturally  regarded  as  very  great.  At  that  time, 
according  to  De  Candolle,  Beauvois  had  produced,  "  ni  la 
'  Flore  d'Oware,'  ni  le  4  Prodrome  de  l'Etheogamie,'  ni  en  un 
mot  aucun  de  ses  ouvrages  qui,"  etc.  But  in  this  De  Can- 
dolle's  memory  was  perhaps  at  fault ;  for,  while  this  election 
took  place  in  the  autumn  of  1806,  the  latter  of  these  works 
of  Beauvois,  according  to  Pritzel,  was  published  in  1805,  and 
the  first  volume  of  the  former  in  1804. 

Evidently  the  disappointment  was  keenly  felt.  Member- 
ship in  the  Institute  secured  not  only  an  assured  position  but 
also  a  comfortable  little  annuity.  This,  and  the  prospective 
needs  of  an  increasing  family,  disposed  De  Candolle  to  look 
elsewhere,  and  to  accept,  after  some  hesitation,  the  botanical 
chair  at  the  University  of  Montpellier,  which  in  1807  became 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Broussonet.  Hardly  was  he  estab- 
lished there  when  the  death  of  Ventenat,  in  the  autumn  of 
1808,  made  him  again  a  candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  Institute  ; 
—  again  an  unsuccessful  one,  but  now  chiefly  because  a  con- 
siderable number  of  his  particular  friends  in  the  Institute 
required  a  promise  that  if  chosen  he  would  reside  at  Paris, 
which  he  could  not  with  propriety  give.  So  they  voted  for 
Mirbel ;  —  and  De  Candolle  took  root  at  Montpellier,  where 
he  flourished  from  1808  to  the  year  1816. 

That  De  Candolle,  full  of  ambition  and  with  a  good  opin- 
ion of  his  abilities,  should  have  disliked  to  give  up  Paris  is 
natural ;  but  he  himself  afterwards  records  the  opinion 
(which  we  share)  that  his  removal  from  the  metropolis  was 
the  best  thing  for  him,  as  enabling  him  to  accomplish  more 
for  botany.  And  as  to  the  honors  of  the  Institute,  his  dis- 
appointments were  more  than  made  up  to  him  in  the  sequel 
by  his  election  as  one  of  the  eight  foreign  associates  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences. 

At  Montpellier,  De  Candolle  was  heartily  welcomed  by  his 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  307 

colleagues,  by  the  official  personages,  and  by  the  protestant 
society  of  the  city,  —  in  those  clays  there  was  little  social  in- 
tercourse between  catholics  and  protestants  in  the  south  of 
France,  —  and  he  gave  himself  with  ardor  and  success  to  his 
new  duties.  He  renovated  the  botanic  garden,  —  the  oldest 
in  France,  founded  by  Henry  IV.,  —  and  secured  additional 
funds  for  its  support.  He  built  up  the  botanical  school,  and 
developed  peculiar  talents  as  an  instructor,  —  with  results 
perhaps  up  to  the  average  as  respects  the  making  of  bota- 
nists ;  but  Dunal,  one  of  his  earliest  pupils,  was  about  the 
only  one  at  Montpellier  who  achieved  a  general  reputation, 
and  his  fell  much  below  expectations.  He  continued  and  ex- 
tended his  official  botanical  explorations  of  the  provinces  of 
France,  making  annual  reports  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
and  planning  a  very  comprehensive  work  on  the  "  Statique 
Vegetale  de  la  France,"  which,  however,  owing  to  political 
and  other  changes,  was  never  written.  He  wrote  and  pub- 
lished the  "  Theorie  Elementaire  "  which  made  his  reputation 
as  a  theoretical  botanist,  and  well  exemplifies  the  characteris- 
tics of  his  genius  in  this  regard, — constructive  rather  than 
critical,  —  quick  and  ingenious  in  seizing  analogies  and  in 
framing  hypotheses,  rather  than  sagacious  in  testing  their 
validity, —  content  with  an  hypothesis  which  neatly  connects 
observed  facts,  but  not  so  solicitous  to  prove  it  actually  true, 
nor  urgent  to  follow  it  out  to  ultimate  conclusions,  —  a  lucid 
expositor,  and  a  happy  diviner  within  a  certain  reach,  rather 
than  a  profound  investigator,  —  in  short,  a  generalizer  rather 
than  an  analyzer.1 

At  Montpellier,  also,  De  Candolle  planned  his  "  Systema 
Vegetabilium "  —  a  systematic  and  detailed  account  of  all 
known  plants,  arranged  under  their  natural  families,  —  and 

1  It  is  curious  that  De  Candolle,  who  early  took  to  the  ideas  of  Geof- 
froy  in  anatomy  who  founded  his  morphology  of  the  flower  upon  the  idea 
of  symmetry,  and  recognized  the  homology  of  the  floral  organs  with 
leaves,  and  who  could  have  got  from  the  writings  of  his  townsman,  Bon- 
net, enough  of  phyllotaxy  for  the  purpose,  seems  never  to  have  thought 
of  connecting  the  one  with  the  other,  nor  to  have  asked  himself  why  a 
flower  is  symmetrical. 


308  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

he  there  prepared  the  first  volume  of  this  work  ;  thus,  with 
characteristic  ardor  and  courage,  but  without  calculating  its 
immensity,  entering  upon  the  grand  and  most  important  un- 
dertaking of  his  life,  and  into  that  field  of  labor  in  systematic 
and  descriptive  botany  for  which  he  was  eminently  adapted, 
by  his  enterprising  disposition  and  unflagging  industry,  his 
capacity  for  sustained  labor,  his  excellent  memory,  his  spirit 
of  order  and  method,  his  quickness  of  eye,  and  his  great  apti- 
tude for  generalization. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Empire,  the  Restoration,  the  Hun- 
dred Days,  and  the  final  fall  of  Napoleon  supervened.  De 
Candolle's  life  at  Montpellier  was  troubled  and  his  prospects 
precarious.  He  naturally  turned  to  his  native  Geneva,  where 
he  had  kept  up  intimate  social  relations  ;  and  when  he  had 
ascertained  that  a  place  would  be  provided  for  him,  he  ex- 
changed the  comparatively  ample  emoluments  of  the  chair  at 
Montpellier  for  the  very  humble  salary  of  one  at  Geneva, 
encumbered  with  the  duty  of  lecturing  upon  zoology  as  well 
as  botany. 

Pending  the  change  he  made  a  visit  to  England,  in  1816, 
of  which  a  detailed  account  is  given,  with  reminiscences  of  the 
botanists  and  others  whose  personal  acquaintance  he  then 
made.  We  regret  that  we  have  no  room  left  for  further  ex- 
tracts :  his  account  of  Brown  is  expressive  of  the  great  re- 
spect he  entertained  for  him,  and  that  of  Salisbury  and  of 
Lambert  is  amusing. 

Settled  now  at  Geneva,  at  the  good  working  age  of  thirty- 
eight,  the  narrative  of  his  steadily  industrious  and  prosperous 
life,  and  of  his  happy  surroundings,  flows  on  for  nearly  two 
hundred  pages,  down  to  the  sad  overthrow  of  his  health  by 
an  overdose  of  iodine  in  1836,  his  partial  convalescence  and 
resumption  of  botanical  work  in  1837,  and  ends  with  the  rec- 
ord of  the  death  of  his  only  brother,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1841,  only  eight  months  before  his  own. 

These  twenty-five  years  witnessed  the  publication  of  the 
two  volumes  of  the  "  Systema " ;  the  change  of  plan  to  a 
"  Species  Plantarum "  in  a  restricted  form,  more  nearly 
within  the  limits  of  a  mortal's  life  and  powers  ;  the  publica- 


AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS  DE   CANDOLLE.  309 

tion  of  the  "  Organographie  "  and  of  the  "  Physiologie  Vege- 
t ale,"  and  —  not  to  mention  a  hundred  other  botanical  and 
sundry  miscellaneous  writings,  of  greater  or  smaller  extent  — 
of  seven  out  of  the  present  fifteen  volumes  of  the  "  Prodro- 
mus."  Only  one  botanist  of  the  present  century  —  and  one 
happily  who  still  survives  —  has  accomplished  an  equal 
amount  of  work,  and  good  work,  in  systematic  botany. 

Our  account  has  run  on  to  such  a  length  that  we  cannot  touch 
upon  De  Candolle's  social  and  domestic  life  —  of  which  the 
memoirs  reveal  pleasant  glimpses,  nor  of  his  useful  and  hon- 
orable life  as  a  Genevan  and  Swiss  citizen.  Nor  can  we  now 
venture  to  gather  interesting  anecdotes  from  his  notices  of 
friends,  visitors,  pupils,  and  collaborators ;  nor  notice  his 
methods  of  working,  and  his  capital  arrangements  for  secur- 
ing and  classifying  details  and  economizing  time. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  pronounce  upon  De  Candolle's  relative 
rank  in  the  hierarchy  of  naturalists.  He  incidentally  once 
speaks  of  Brown  and  himself  as  rivals  for  the  botanical 
sceptre.  It  is  natural  that  they  should  be  compared,  or 
rather  contrasted  ;  for  they  were  the  complements  of  each 
other  in  almost  every  respect  The  fusion  of  the  two  would 
have  made  a  perfect  botanist.  But  De  Candolle's  facility  for 
generalization,  zeal,  and  industry  were  as  much  above,  as 
his  depth  of  insight  and  analytical  power  were  below  Brown's. 
The  one  longed,  the  other  loathed,  to  bring  forth  all  he  knew. 
The  editor  compares  De  Candolle's  traits  of  character  with 
those  of  Linnaeus,  as  delineated  by  Fabricius,  and  finds  much 
resemblance.  But  his  impress  upon  the  science,  however 
broad  and  good,  can  hardly  be  compared  with  that  of  Lin- 
naeus. 


BENJAMIN   D.  GREENE.1 

Benjamin  D.  Greene,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  died  on  the  14th 
of  October  last,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  years.  He  was  born 
in  1793,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  University  in  the  year 
1812.  He  first  pursued  legal  studies,  partly  in  the  then  cele- 
brated school  at  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  and  was  duly  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  Boston.  He  then  took  up  the  study  of 
medicine,  and  completed  his  medical  course  in  the  medical 
schools  of  Scotland  and  Paris,  taking  his  medical  degree  at 
Edinburgh  in  the  year  1821.  The  large  advantages  of  such 
a  training  having  been  enjoyed,  Mr.  Greene  did  not  engage 
in  the  practice  of  either  profession.  An  ample  inheritance, 
which  rendered  professional  exertion  unnecessary,  conspiring 
with  a  remarkably  quiet  and  contemplative  disposition  and  a 
refined  taste,  led  him  to  devote  his  time  to  literary  culture  and 
to  scientific  pursuits.  His  fondness  for  botany,  which  early 
developed,  was  stimulated  by  personal  intercourse  with  vari- 
ous European  botanists,  and  especially  with  his  surviving 
friend,  the  now  venerable  Sir  William  Hooker,  then  professor 
at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  to  whom  he  naturally  became 
much  attached,  and  by  whom  he  was  highly  appreciated. 

In  botany,  as  in  everything  else,  Mr.  Greene  sought  to  be 
silently  useful.  He  never  himself  published  any  of  his  dis- 
coveries or  observations.  The  few  species  to  which  his  name 
is  annexed  were  given  to  the  world  at  second  hand.  But  his 
collections  were  extensive,  his  original  observations  numer- 
ous and  accurate,  and  both  were  freely  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  working  botanists.  He  early  saw  that  the  great  obstacles 
to  the  advantageous  prosecution  of  botanical  investigation  in 
this  country,  and  especially  in  New  England,  were  the  want 
of  books  and  the  want  of  authentic  collections ;    and    these 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xxxv.  449.     (1863.) 


BENJAMIN  D.   GREENE.  311 

desiderata  he  endeavored,  so  far  as  he  could,  to  supply.  He 
gathered  a  choice  botanical  library,  he  encouraged  explora- 
tions, and  he  subscribed  to  all  the  large  purchasable  North 
American  collections,  —  beginning  with  those  of  Drummond 
in  the  southern  United  States  and  in  the  then  Mexican  province 
of  Texas.  These  being  distributed  under  numbers,  among  the 
principal  herbaria  of  the  world,  and  named  or  referred  to  in 
monographs  or  other  botanical  works,  were  of  prime  impor- 
tance as  standards  of  comparison.  Such  collections  and  such 
books  as  Mr.  Greene  brought  together  were  just  the  appara- 
tus most  needed  at  that  time  in  this  country  ;  and  now  when 
our  wants  are  somewhat  better  supplied,  we  should  not  forget 
the  essential  service  which  they  have  rendered,  nor  the  disin- 
terested kindness  with  which  their  most  amiable  and  excellent 
owner  always  placed  them  at  the  disposal  of  those  who  could 
advantageously  use  them.  Mr.  Greene's  botanical  library 
and  collections  have  been,  by  gift  and  bequest,  consigned  to 
the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  founders  and  the  first  president,  and  by  which  they  will  be 
preserved  for  the  benefit  of  future  New  England  botanists,  by 
whom  his  memory  should  ever  be  gratefully  cherished.  The 
genus  Greenea,  established  by  Wight  and  Arnott  upon  two 
rare  Rubiaceous  shrubs  of  India,  barely  anticipated  a  similar 
dedication  by  his  old  friend  Mr.  Nuttall,  of  a  curious  Grass  "t 
Arkansas  and  Texas,  and  will  perpetuate  his  name  in  the 
annals  of  the  science  which  he  lovingly  cultivated. 


CHARLES  WILKINS   SHORT.1 

Dr.  Charles  Wilkins  Short  died  at  his  residence  at 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  on  the  7th  of  March  last,  in  the  sixty- 
ninth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  born  in  Woodford  County  of 
that  State,  on  October  6,  1794,  was  educated  in  the  school 
of  Mr.  Joshua  Frye,  near  Danville,  —  a  distinguished  teacher 
of  those  days,  —  pursued  his  professional  studies  mainly  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  took  the  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  year  1815.  For  ten  years 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  practice  of  medicine,  until  in  the 
year  1825  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Materia  Medica  and 
Medical  Botany  in  the  Transylvania  University  at  Lexington, 
where  he  contributed  to  the  reputation  of  that  celebrated 
school.  Relinquishing  medical  practice,  for  which  he  had  no 
liking,  he  devoted  his  powers  with  zeal  and  success  to  the 
more  congenial  duties  of  his  professorship,  and  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  botany,  the  favorite  pursuit  of  his  life.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  1838  he  removed,  along  with  some  of  his  distin- 
guished colleagues,  to  Louisville,  filling  the  same  chair  in  the 
University  of  that  city  until  1849,  when  he  retired  from 
public  functions.  The  remainder  of  his  honorable  life  was 
passed  at  Hayfield,  at  his  tasteful  residence  near  Louisville,  in 
the  bosom  of  his  family ;  in  the  exercise  of  kindly  but  unos- 
tentatious hospitality  and  of  all  good  offices  ;  in  quietly  enjoy- 
ing and  in  causing  others  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  hand- 
some fortune,  to  which  by  inheritance,  combined  with  the 
fruits  of  his  own  industry,  he  now  attained,  and  in  the  culti- 
vation of  the  "amiable  science"  to  which  he  was  devotedly 
attached. 

Dr.  Short's  botanical  publications  were  neither  large  nor 
many.     They  were  chiefly  articles  contributed  to  the  "  Tran- 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xxxv.  451.     (1863.) 


CHARLES  WILKINS   SHORT.  313 

sylvania  Journal  of  Medicine,"  etc.,  of  which  he  was  for  some 
time  one  of  the  editors.  The  most  important  is  his  Catalogue 
of  the  plants  of  his  native  state  (which  he  widely  and  assidu- 
ously explored),  and  several  supplements;  with  well  consid- 
ered characters  of  some  new  species,  and  acute  and  discrimi- 
nating notes  upon  several  imperfectly  known  plants.  These 
and  the  copious  manuscript  observations  which  he  was  for 
many  years  accustomed  to  communicate  to  his  botanical  corre- 
spondents, showed  what  he  was  capable  of  accomplishing,  had 
not  a  most  retiring  and  unambitious  disposition  unduly  lim- 
ited his  exertion.  It  was  not  activity  or  persevering  labor, 
but  publicity,  that  he  shrunk  from.  lie  was  a  very  industri- 
ous botanist,  and  an  effectual  promoter  of  our  science  in  this 
country.  His  great  usefulness  in  this  field  was  mainly  owing 
to  the  extent  and  the  particular  excellence  of  his  personal  col- 
lections, and  to  the  generous  profusion  with  which  he  distrib- 
uted them  far  and  wide  among  his  fellow-laborers  in  this  and 
other  lands.  He  and  the  late  Mr.  Oakes  —  the  one  in  the 
west  and  the  other  in  the  east,  but  independently  —  were  the 
first  in  this  country  to  prepare  on  an  ample  scale  dried  speci- 
mens of  uniform  and  superlative  excellence  and  beauty,  and  in 
lavish  abundance  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  all  who  could 
need  them.  Dr.  Short's  disinterested  activity  in  these  re- 
spects has  enriched  almost  every  considerable  herbarium  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  set  an  example  which  has  produced 
large  and  good  results  among  us.  The  vast  improvement  in 
the  character  of  the  dried  specimens  now  generally  made  by 
our  botanists  may  be  mainly  traced  to  the  example  and  influ- 
ence of  Dr.  Short  and  Mr.  Oakes.  As  might  be  expected,  Dr. 
Short's  own  herbarium  is  a  model  of  taste  and  neatness.  It  is 
also  large  and  important.  To  one  himself  so  Bolicitous  "to 
do  good  and  to  communicate,"  contributions  from  numerous 
sources  naturally  flowed  abundantly.  He,  moreover,  sub- 
scribed to  all  the  North  American  distributed  collections 
within  his  reach,  and  he  set  on  foot  or  efficiently  furthered 
several  distant  or  difficult  botanical  explorations.  lie  pur- 
chased, at  a  liberal  price,  the  important  botanical  collections 
of  Texas  and  northern  Mexico,  left  by  Berlandier,  which 
Lieutenant  (now  General)  Couch  acquired  of  his  widow  and 


31-4  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

sent  on  to  Washington  ;  and,  retaining  one  set  for  his  own 
herbarium,  he  caused  the  rest  to  be  distributed  among  the 
botanists  to  whom  they  would  be  most  useful,  —  especially 
including:  two  Swiss  botanists  who  had  contributed  to  send  out 
Berlandier  to  Mexico  as  a  collector,  but  from  whom  (appar- 
ently through  Berlandier's  dishonesty)  they  had  failed  to  re- 
ceive any  adequate  return.  It  is  understood  that  Dr.  Short's 
rich  herbarium  —  to  which  a  lifetime  of  thoughtful  attention 
and  much  expense  were  lovingly  devoted  —  is  now  offered,  by 
a  wise  bequest,  to  the  custody  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
under  instructions  that  it  shall  be  permanently  well  cared  for 
and  always  open  to  be  consulted  by  botanists.  It  will  there 
form  an  excellent  and  conspicuous  nucleus  for  a  collection  of 
American  herbaria,  such  as  our  science  needs,  and  the  country 
ought  to  possess. 

The  natural  effects  upon  his  scientific  career  of  a  fastidious 
taste,  an  unwarrantable  diffidence,  and  a  too  retiring  disposi- 
tion, were  enhanced  by  a  constitutional  tendency  to  depression 
of  spirits.  But  this  never  obscured  the  native  kindness  of  his 
heart,  nor  the  real  though  so  quiet  geniality  of  his  disposi- 
tion, nor  checked  an  unobtrusive  and  considerate  benevolence. 
With  an  uncompromising  sense  of  right  and  justice,  and  a 
keen  hatred  of  everything  mean  and  unworthy,  he  was  never 
harsh  or  even  cynical.  All  who  knew  him  well,  and  also  his 
more  intimate  correspondents  who  never  enjoyed  the  privilege 
of  a  personal  acquaintance,  can  testify  to  the  nobility  and 
Christian  excellence  of  his  character.  An  appreciative  tri- 
bute to  his  memory  from  the  pen  of  a  former  colleague  will 
be  found  in  the  "  Louisville  Journal,"  issued  a  few  clays  after 
Dr.  Short's  lamented  death. 

Two  or  three  species  of  Kentucky  plants  commemorate  the 
name  of  Dr.  Short  as  their  discoverer.  Also  a  new  genus 
Shortia,  inhabiting  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  was  dedicated 
by  him  to  the  present  writer.  But,  alas  !  too  like  the  botanist 
for  whom  it  was  named,  it  is  so  retiring  in  its  habits  that  it  is 
not  known  as  it  ought  to  be,  but  lives  as  yet  unseen,  except 
by  a  single  botanist  of  a  former  generation,  in  some  secluded 
recess  of  the  Black  Mountain  of  North  Carolina.  It  will 
some  day  be  found  again  and  appreciated. 


FRANCIS   BOOTT.1 

Francis  Boott,  M.  D.,  died  at  liis  residence  in  London 
on  Christmas  morning,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age. 
He  was  born  in  Boston,  on  the  2Gth  of  September,  1792. 
His  father,  Kirk  Boott,  came  to  this  country  early  in  life, 
from  Derbyshire,  England,  became  a  successful  merchant 
in  Boston,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  manufacturing  enter- 
prise here,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  Lowell,  —  the  type,  if 
not  wholly  the  original  of  manufacturing  towns.  His  Boston 
residence  was  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Revere  House, 
of  which  the  Boott  mansion  forms  a  part.  Francis  Boott 
entered  Harvard  University  in  the  year  1806,  and  took  his 
bachelor's  degree  in  1810.  A  year  after,  being  then  in  his 
nineteenth  year,  namely,  in  the  summer  of  1811,  he  sailed 
for  England,  intending  to  enter  a  counting-room  in  Liverpool, 
as  a  preparation  for  mercantile  life.  This  plan,  however, 
was  soon  relinquished ;  and  the  three  succeeding  years  were 
mainly  spent  with  his  relatives  and  their  friends  near  Derby, 
where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  Ilardcastle,  his  fu- 
ture mother-in-law,  who  was  something  of  a  botanist,  and 
where  he  formed  both  the  scientific  and  social  attachments 
which  determined  the  aims  and  secured  the  happiness  of  his 
whole  after  life.  Returning  to  Boston  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1814,  he  engaged  with  enthusiasm  in  botanical  pursuits,  and 
amassed  a  good  collection  of  New  England  plants.  In  the 
summer  of  1816  he  took  a  leading  part  in  a  botanical  ex- 
ploration of  the  mountains  of  New  England,  ascending  in  the 
course  of  one  journey,  Wachusett,  Monadnock,  Ascutney,  and 
Mount  Washington  ;  and  later  in  the  season  Dr.  Boott  with 
his  brother  visited  and  ascended  Moosehillock.  His  compan- 
ions in  the  extended   and  then  formidable  tour  which  culmi- 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  sit.,  xxxvii.  288.     (1804.) 


316  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

nated  in  the  White  Mountains  —  then  to  be  reached  only  by 
a  laborious  journey  of  two  days  on  foot  —  were  Francis  C. 
Gray,  Judge  Shaw,  Nathaniel  Tucker,  and  Dr.  Jacob  Bige- 
low,  the  Nestor  of  New  England  botany,  now  the  sole  surviv- 
ing member  of  the  party.  An  interesting  account  of  the  as- 
cent of  Mount  Washington,  written  by  Dr.  Bigelow,  was  pub- 
lished at  the  time  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  "  New  England 
Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery.' ' 

In  the  year  1820  Dr.  Boott  crossed  the  Atlantic  for  the 
last  time,  and  proceeding  to  London  entered  upon  the  study 
of  medicine,  under  the  direction  of  the  late  Dr.  Armstrong. 
He  continued  his  medical  studies  at  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  took  the  degree  of  M.  D.  in  1824.  The  next 
year  he  established  himself  in  London,  we  believe  in  the  very 
house  in  Gower  Street  where  he  resided  until  the  day  of  his 
death.  He  was  soon  associated  with  his  near  friend  and  former 
teacher  in  the  work  of  instruction,  becoming  Lecturer  on  Bot- 
any in  the  Webb  Street  School  of  Medicine,  where  Dr.  Arm- 
strong was  Professor  of  Materia  Medica. 

"His  lectures  are  said  to  have  been  admirable,  both  in 
matter  and  style,  and  to  have  excited  much  enthusiasm ; 
whilst  his  untiring  efforts  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  pupils 
in  other  ways  were  so  deeply  and  generally  felt,  that,  on  the 
eve  of  his  too  early  withdrawal  from  the  lectureship,  they  in 
one  day  raised  a  large  subscription  to  present  to  their  friend 
and  teacher ;  —  a  tribute  which,  with  the  characteristic 
modesty  and  consideration,  was  declined  as  soon  as  heard  of. 
He  was,  however,  afterwards  persuaded  to  accept  a  collection 
of  books  instead,  in  remembrance  of  their  grateful  feelings 
and  good  will." 

The  early  death  of  Dr.  Armstrong,  cutting  short  a  distin- 
guished career,  imposed  upon  his  friend  the  duties  of  a  biog- 
rapher and  expositor.  Accordingly,  after  much  preparation, 
Dr.  Boott,  in  the  year  1834,  published  two  octavo  volumes, 
entitled,  "  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Medical  Opinions  of 
John  Armstrong,  M.  D.  ;  to  which  is  added  an  Inquiry  into 
the  facts  connected  with  those  forms  of  Fever  attributed  to 
Malaria  and  Marsh  Effluvium."     He  published,  besides,  in 


FRANCIS  BOOTT.  317 

the  year  1827,  two  introductory  Lectures  on  Materia  Medica, 
which  gave  a  good  idea  of  his  excellence  as  a  teacher.  Al- 
though he  did  not  continue  in  this  career,  his  interest  in 
medical  and  scientific  education  never  abated.  He  was  an  ac- 
tive promoter  of  the  establishment  of  London  University  (now 
University  College),  and  was  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  an  influential  member  of  its  senate  and  council.  He 
was  successfully  engaged  for  some  time  in  medical  practice, 
and  was  for  many  years  Physician  to  the  American  Embassy  ; 
but  he  gradually  withdrew  from  professional  cares  and  toils 
to  more  congenial  literary  and  scientific  pursuits.  As  early 
as  the  year  1819  he  had  become  a  Fellow  of  the  Linnaean 
Society  of  London  ;  and  afterwards,  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  he  gave  it  continuous  and  invaluable  service  as  secre- 
tary, treasurer,  or  vice-president. 

At  one  time  it  was  thought  that  Dr.  Boott  might  be  recalled 
to  his  native  country  and  to  an  active  scientific  life.  Nearly 
thirty  years  ago  he  was  offered  the  chair  of  natural  history 
in  Harvard  University,  —  a  chair  which  had  remained  vacant 
since  the  death  of  Professor  Peck  in  1822,  although  its  duties 
were  for  several  years  fulfilled  by  the  late  Mr.  Nuttall.  After 
Nuttall  left  Cambridge  to  explore  Oregon  and  California, 
arrangements  were  made  to  endow  the  vacant  professorship 
properly  in  case  Dr.  Boott  would  accept  the  place.  Although 
the  offer  was  declined,  we  have  been  told  that  he  intimated  a 
willingness  to  accept  it  if  the  chair  were  simply  that  of  bot- 
any ;  and  when  informed  that  he  might  practically  make  it 
so,  although  the  title  was  unchangeable,  he  insisted  that  he 
would  not  be  called  a  professor  of  natural  history,  while  he 
could  pretend  to  a  knowledge  only  of  botany. 

Nearly  thirty  years  ago,  Dr.  Boott  began  seriously  to  de- 
vote his  energies  to  the  special  work  upon  which  his  scientific 
reputation  mainly  rests,  namely,  to  the  study  of  the  vast  and 
intricate  genus  Carex.  The  first  result  of  these  studies  ap- 
peared in  his  elaboration  of  the  Carices  of  British  North 
America  in  Sir  William  Hooker's  "Flora  Boreali-Ameri- 
cana,"  published  in  1840.  Other  papers  upon  Carices  were 
contributed  to  the  "Transactions  of  the  Linnaean  Society," 


318  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

the  "  Journal  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,"  etc. 
As  it  had  always  been  the  greatest  pleasure,  we  might  say  the 
business  of  his  life  to  assist  others,  so  now  friends  and  corre- 
spondents from  all  parts  of  the  world  hastened  to  place  in 
his  hands  the  fullest  sets  of  their  collections  in  this  difficult 
genus ;  and  he  was  able  to  study,  in  the  unrivaled  caricologi- 
cal  collection  he  thus  formed,  and  the  various  public  and  pri- 
vate herbaria  to  which  he  had  access,  almost  all  of  the  six 
hundred  or  more  species  which  the  genus  was  computed  by 
him  to  comprise,  to  compare  them  in  numerous  specimens  of 
their  various  forms,  and  to  examine  them,  group  after  group, 
with  untiring  and  closest  scrutiny.  At  length,  early  in  the 
year  1858,  he  gave  to  the  world  (literally  gave  to  the  world) 
the  first  volume  of  his  great  work,  entitled  "  Illustrations  of 
the  Genus  Carex,"  a  folio  volume  with  two  hundred  plates, 
admirably  representing  about  that  number  of  species.  A  very 
large  proportion  of  them  were  North  American  species,  in 
which  he  naturally  always  took  a  special  interest.  In  the 
letter  of  dedication  of  this  work  to  his  friend,  John  Amory 
Lowell,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  Dr.  Boott  states  that  his  original 
design  "  was  limited  to  the  Carices  of  North  America,"  but 
that  the  large  collections  brought  by  Dr.  Hooker  from  the 
East  Indies,  and  placed  in  his  hands  for  study,  caused  him  to 
extend  his  plan,  and  to  endeavor  to  illustrate  the  genus  at 
large.  With  characteristic  modesty  he  makes  no  allusion  to 
the  years  of  labor  and  the  large  amount  of  money  (savings 
from  a  moderate  income  by  a  simple  mode  of  life)  which  the 
volume  had  cost  him ;  the  drawings,  engravings,  and  letter- 
press having  been  produced  at  his  sole  individual  expense, 
and  the  larger  part  of  the  copies  freely  given  away.  Nor  did 
he  put  forth  any  promise  to  continue  the  work.  But  in  1860 
Part  Second  quietly  appeared,  without  a  word  of  preface. 
This  contains  110  plates.  Two  years  after,  this  was  followed 
by  Part  Third,  with  100  plates,  making  410  in  all ;  and  it  is 
understood  that  the  materials  of  a  fourth  volume  are  left  in 
such  forwardness  that  they  may  perhaps  be  published  by  his 
surviving  family. 

Our  own  estimate  of  this  work  has  been  recorded  in  the 
pages  of  this  Journal,  as  the  successive  volumes  were  received. 


FRANCIS  BOOTT.  819 

This  motto,  which  the  author  placed  upon  his  title-pages, — 
"  The  man  who  labors  and  digests  things  most, 
Will  be  much  apter  to  despair  than  boast," 

is  felicitously  expressive  both  of  the  endless  difficulties  of  the 
subject,  and  of  his  undervaluation  of  his  endeavors  to  over- 
come them.     A  most  competent  judge  briefly  declares  that,  — 

"  This  work  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  munificent  con- 
tributions ever  made  to  scientific  botany,  besides  being  one  of 
the  most  accurate  ;  on  which  account  it  certainly  entitles  its 
author  to  take  a  much  higher  place  amongst  botanists  than 
that  of  an  amateur,  which  was  all  that  his  modesty  would 
allow  him  to  lay  claim  to." 

Dr.  Boott's  health,  which  had  long  been  delicate,  was  much 
shattered  in  the  winter  of  1839-40  by  a  dangerous  attack  ol 
pneumonia.  "  From  this  time  he  had  repeated  slight  attacks  ; 
but  no  alarming  symptoms  occurred  till  June,  18G3,  when  the 
remaining  lung  gave  way,  and  from  that  time  he  never  fairly 
rallied.  He  died  at  his  residence,  24  Gower  Street,  on  Christ- 
mas day,  retaining  to  the  last  his  faculties  and  all  the  charac- 
teristics of  his  most  admirable  life." 

Dr.  Boott  was  a  man  of  singular  purity,  delicacy,  and  good- 
ness of  character,  and  of  the  most  affectionate  disposition. 
Few  men  of  his  ardent  temperament  and  extreme  sense  of  jus- 
tice ever  made  fewer  enemies  or  more  friends.  To  the  latter 
he  attached  himself  with  entire  devotion.  If  there  were  any 
of  the  former,  probably  no  man  ever  heard  him  speak  ill  of 
them.  His  published  works  suffice  to  place  his  name  imper- 
ishably  upon  the  records  of  science.  But  only  his  contempo- 
raries and  friends  will  know  how  much  he  has  done  to  help 
others,  and  how  disinterestedly  and  gracefully  that  aid  was 
ever  rendered.  He  took  with  him  to  England,  upon  his  re- 
turn in  the  year  1820,  a  valuable  herbarium  of  New  England 
plants,  especially  those  of  the  White  Mountains,  which  were 
then  rare  and  little  known.  He  must  have  valued  this  collec- 
tion highly,  and  have  expected  to  use  it.  But  he  presented 
the  whole  of  it  to  Dr.,  now  Sir  William  Hooker,  when  he  siw 
how  serviceable  it  would  be  to  him  in  the  preparation  of  the 
"Flora  Boreali- Americana."  His  British  herbarium  was 
long  ago  similarly  given  to  a  then  young  American  botanist. 


320  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Another,  who,  twenty-five  years  ago,  called  to  take  leave  of 
him  upon  returning  to  this  country,  found,  as  he  left,  the  seat 
of  his  cab  loaded  with  choice  botanical  books,  which  Dr.  Boott 
had  at  the  moment  sent  there  from  the  shelves  of  his  own  li- 
brary, where  they  were  not  duplicates.  We  know  of  one  or 
two  instances  where  he  had  commenced  a  critical  study  of  a 
particular  genus  with  a  view  to  publication,  but,  upon  learn- 
ing that  another  person  had  taken  up  the  same  subject,  he 
dispatched  to  him  his  own  notes  and  other  materials.  The 
Linnsean  Society  of  London  owes  no  little  of  its  present  pros- 
perity to  his  long  and  faithful  services  and  his  wise  counsels. 
He  kept  up  an  active  correspondence  with  his  friends  in  this 
country ;  and  for  more  than  thirty  years  our  young  profes- 
sional men,  naturalists,  and  others  who  have  visited  Europe, 
have  experienced  cordial  welcome  and  thoughtful  kindness  at 
his  hands.     The  following  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  man  :  — 

"  When  practicing  as  a  physician  he  discarded  the  custom- 
ary black  coat,  knee-breeches,  and  silk  stockings,  for  the  very 
good  reason  that  sombre  colors  could  not  but  suggest  gloomy 
ideas  to  the  sick ;  and  he  was  one  of  the  first  who  adopted  the 
custom  now  universal  in  the  profession,  of  dressing  in  the 
ordinary  costume.  In  doing  this,  Dr.  Boott  adopted  the  blue 
coat,  gilt  buttons,  and  buff  vest  of  the  period,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  wear  to  the  last,  and  with  which  dress  his  casual 
acquaintance,  no  less  than  his  personal  friends,  will  ever  as- 
sociate him.  In  person  he  was  so  tall  and  thin  as  almost  to 
suggest  ill-health  ;  and  the  refinement  of  his  manners,  his  ex- 
pression, address,  and  bearing  were  in  perfect  keeping  with 
his  polished  mind  and  many  accomplishments." 

The  preceding  extracts  are  all  from  an  excellent  article  in 
the  "  Gardeners'  Chronicle  "  for  January  16,  to  which  we  are 
much  indebted.  Ir»  the  first  volume  of  the  late  Dr.  Wallich's 
splendid  "  Plantse  Asiatics  Ra^ores,"  published  in  the  year 
1830,  is  the  figure  of  a  handsome  and  curious  Butomaceous 
plant,  Boottia  cordata,  a  genus  dedicated  "  in  honorem  Fran- 
cisci  Boott,  Americani,  botanici  ardentissimi  et  peritissimi, 
amici  dilectissimi,  non  minus  animi  probitate  quam  scientia- 
rum  cultu,  et  morum  suavitate  egregii." 


WILLIAM  JACKSON   HOOKER.1 

Sir  William  Jackson  Hookek  died  at  Kew,  after  a 
short  illness,  on  the  12th  of  August  last,  in  the  eighty-first 
year  of  his  age. 

Seldom,  if  ever  before,  has  the  death  of  a  botanist  been  so 
widely  felt  as  a  personal  sorrow,  so  extended  were  his  rela- 
tions, and  so  strongly  did  he  attach  himself  to  all  who  knew 
him.  By  the  cultivators  of  botany  in  our  own  country,  at 
least,  this  statement  will  not  be  thought  exaggerated.  Al- 
though few  of  our  botanists  ever  had  the  privilege  of  person- 
ally knowing  him,  there  are  none  who  are  not  much  indebted 
to  him,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  It  is  fitting,  therefore, 
that  some  record  of  his  life  and  tribute  to  his  memory  should 
appear  upon  the  pages  of  the  "American  Journal  of  Science." 

The  incidents  of  his  life  are  soon  told.  He  was  born  on 
the  6th  of  July,  1785,  at  Norwich,  England,  where  his  father 
—  who  survived  to  even  a  greater  age  than  his  distinguished 
and  only  son  —  was  at  that  period  confidential  clerk  in  a 
large  business  establishment.  He  was  descended  from  the 
same  family  with  "  the  Judicious  Hooker,"  author  of  the 
"  Ecclesiastical  Polity."  The  name  William  Jackson  was 
that  of  our  botanist's  cousin  and  god-father,  who  died  young, 
and  was  soon  followed  by  both  his  parents ;  in  consequence 
of  which  their  estate  of  Sea-salter,  near  Canterbury,  came  to 
young  Hooker  while  yet  a  lad  at  the  Norwich  High  School. 
He  could  therefore  indulge  the  taste  which  he  early  developed 
for  natural  history,  at  this  time  mainly  for  ornithology.  But 
the  chance  discovery  of  that  rare  and  curious  moss,  Bvxbau- 
mia  aphylla,  which  he  took  to  his  eminent  townsman  Sir 
James  Edward  Smith,  directed  his  attention  to  botany,  and 
fixed  the  bent  of  his  long  and  active  life.  He  now  made  ex- 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xli.  1.    (1800.) 


322  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

tensive  botanical  tours  through  the  wildest  parts  of  Scotland, 
the  Hebrides,  and  the  Orkneys,  which  his  lithe  and  athletic 
frame  and  great  activity  fitted  him  keenly  to  enjoy.  Coming 
up  to  London,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks 
and  of  the  botanists  he  had  drawn  around  him,  Dryander,  So- 
lander,  and  Robert  Brown. 

In  1809  he  went  to  Iceland,  to  explore  that  then  little- 
known  island.  The  exploration  was  most  successful ;  but  the 
ship  in  which  he  embarked,  with  all  his  collections,  notes,  and 
drawings,  was  fired  and  destroyed,  and  everything  was  lost, 
he  himself  narrowly  escaping  with  his  life.  Hooker's  earliest 
work,  the  "  Journal  of  a  Tour  in  Iceland,"  in  two  octavo  vol- 
umes, published  at  Yarmouth  in  1811,  and  republished  at 
London  two  years  afterwards,  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
his  explorations  and  adventures,  along  with  the  history  of  a 
singular  attempt  at  the  time  to  revolutionize  the  island,  — with 
which  the  disaster  to  the  vessel  he  returned  in  was  in  some  way 
connected,  we  forget  how.  Not  disheartened  by  these  losses,  he 
now  turned  from  a  polar  to  an  equatorial  region,  and  made 
extensive  preparations  for  going  to  Ceylon,  with  Sir  Robert 
Brownrigg,  then  appointed  governor.  But  the  disturbances 
which  broke  out  in  that  island,  more  serious  than  those  which 
attended  the  close  of  his  Iceland  tour,  again  frustrated  his 
endeavors. 

The  strong  disposition  for  travel  and  distant  exploration, 
frustrated  in  his  own  case,  came  to  fruit  abundantly  in  the 
next  generation,  in  the  world-wide  explorations  of  his  son. 
He  himself  made  no  more  distant  journey  than  to  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  and  France,  in  1814,  becoming  personally  ac- 
quainted with  the  principal  botanists  of  the  day,  and  laying 
the  foundation  of  his  wide  correspondence  and  great  botanical 
collections.  In  1815  he  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
late  Dawson  Turner,  of  Yarmouth,  and  established  his  resi- 
dence at  Halesworth,  in  Suffolk.  The  next  year,  in  1816, 
besides  publishing  some  of  the  Musci  and  Hepaticm  of  Hum- 
boldt and  Bonpland's  collection,  he  brought  to  completion  his 
first  great  botanical  work,  "  The  British  Jungermannise,"  with 
colored  figures  of  each  species,  and  microscopical  analyses,  in 


WILLIAM  JACKSON  HOOKER.  323 

eighty-four  plates,  all  from  his  own  ready  pencil,  —  a  work 
which  took  rank  as  a  model  both  for  description  and  illustra- 
tion. In  1828  he  brought  out,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Taylor, 
the  well-known  "  Muscologia  Britannica,"  the  second  edition 
of  which,  issued  in  1827,  is  only  recently  superseded.  The 
"  Musci  Exotici,"  with  17G  admirable  plates,  appeared,  the 
first  volume  in  1818,  the  second  in  1820.  These  were  his 
principal  works  upon  Mosses  and  the  like, — an  excellent  sub- 
ject for  the  training  of  a  botanist,  and  one  in  which  Hooker, 
with  quick  eye,  skilled  hand,  and  intuitive  judgment,  was  not 
only  to  excel  but  to  lay  the  foundation  of  high  excellence  in 
general  descriptive  botany. 

When  arranging  for  a  prolonged  visit  to  Ceylon,  it  appears 
that  he  sold  his  landed  property,  and  that  his  investment  of 
the  proceeds  was  unfortunate  ;  so  that  the  demands  of  an  in- 
creasing family  and  of  his  enlarging  collections,  for  which  he 
always  lavishly  provided,  made  it  needful  for  him  to  seek 
some  remunerative  scientific  employment.  Botanical  instruc- 
tion in  Great  Britain  was  then,  more  than  now,  nearly  re- 
stricted to  medical  classes  ;  the  botanical  chairs  in  the  uni- 
versities therefore  belonged  to  the  medical  faculty,  and  were 
filled  by  members  of  the  profession.  But,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  as  is  understood,  the  Regius  Pro- 
fessorship of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Glasgow  was  offered 
to  Hooker,  and  was  accepted  by  him.  He  removed  to  Glas- 
gow in  the  year  1820,  and  assumed  the  duties  of  this  posi- 
tion. Here,  for  twenty  years  —  the  most  productive  years  of 
his  life  —  he  was  not  only  the  most  active  and  conspicuous 
working  botanist  of  his  country  and  time,  but  one  of  the  best 
and  most  zealous  of  teachers.  The  fixed  salary  was  then  only 
fifty  pounds  ;  and  the  class  fees  at  first  scarcely  exceeded  that 
sum.  But  his  lecture-room  was  soon  thronged  with  an  In  it 
and  attached  pupils,  and  the  emoluments  rose  to  a  consider- 
able sum,  enabling  him  to  build  up  his  unrivaled  herbarium, 
to  patronize  explorers  and  collectors  in  almost  every  acces- 
sible region,  and  to  carry  on  his  numerous  expensive  publica- 
tions, very  few  of  which  could  be  at  all  remunerative. 

The  first  publication  of  these  busy  years  was  the  "  Flora 


324  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Scotica,"  brought  out  in  1821.  The  next  year  but  one 
brought  the  first  of  the  three  volumes  of  the  "  Exotic  Flora," 
containing  figures  and  descriptions  of  new,  rare,  or  otherwise 
interesting  exotic  plants,  admirably  delineated,  chiefly  from 
those  cultivated  in  the  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh  Botanic  Gar- 
dens. Here  first  is  manifested  the  interest  in  the  flora  of  our 
own  country,  which  has  since  identified  the  name  of  Hooker 
with  North  American  botany,  a  considerable  number  of  our 
choicest  plants,  especially  of  the  Orchis  family,  having  been 
here  illustrated  by  his  pencil. 

The  "  Icones  Filicum  "  (in  which  he  was  associated  with 
Dr.  Greville),  in  two  large  folio  volumes,  with  two  hundred 
and  forty  plates,  begun  in  1829  and  finished  in  1831,  was  his 
introduction  to  the  great  family  of  Ferns,  to  which  he  in  later 
years  devoted  his  chief  attention. 

In  1830  began,  with  the  "  Botanical  Miscellany,"  that  se- 
ries of  periodical  publications  which,  continued  for  almost 
thirty  years,  stimulated  the  activity  and  facilitated  the  inter- 
course of  botanists  in  no  ordinary  degree.  The  "  Miscellany," 
in  royal  octavo,  with  many  plates,  closed  with  its  third  volume, 
in  1833.  The  "  Journal  of  Botany,"  a  continuation  of  the 
"  Miscellany  "  in  a  cheaper  form  (in  ordinary  8vo,  issued 
monthly),  took  its  place  in  1834,  but  was  itself  superseded 
during  the  years  1835  and  1836  by  the  "  Companion  to  the 
Botanical  Magazine  "  (2  vols.  imp.  8vo).  In  1840  (after  an 
interval  in  which  the  editor  took  charge  of  the  botanical 
portion  of  Taylor's  "Annals  of  Natural  History  "),  the  Journal 
was  resumed  and  carried  on  to  the  fourth  volume  in  1842. 
Then,  changed  in  title  and  enlarged,  it  appears  as  the  "  Lon- 
don Journal  of  Botany  "  for  seven  years,  until  1848,  and 
finally,  as  the  "  Journal  of  Botany  and  Kew  Garden  Miscel- 
lany," for  nine  years  more,  or  to  the  close  of  1857.  The 
whole  was  carried  on  entirely  at  the  editor's  cost,  he  furnish- 
ing the  MSS.  for  the  letter-press,  the  drawings,  etc.,  without 
charge,  "  so  that  it  may  be  supposed  that  his  expenses  were 
heavy,  while  his  profits  were,  as  he  always  anticipated,  liter- 
ally nil." 

The  plates  of  the  Journal  being  too  few  to  contain  a  tithe 


WILLIAM  JACKSON   HOOKER.  325 

of  the  species  in  his  herbarium  which  it  was  desirable  to  fig- 
ure, an  outlet  for  these  was  made  by  the  "  Icones  Plantarum, 
or  Figures,  with  brief  descriptive  Characters  and  Remarks  of 
New  or  Rare  Plants  selected  from  the  Author's  Herbarium." 
Ten  volumes  of  the  work  were  published,  with  a  thousand 
plates  (in  octavo),  at  the  author's  sole  expense,  and  with  no 
remuneration,  between  the  years  1837  and  1854,  the  drawings 
of  the  earlier  volumes  by  his  own  hand,  of  the  later,  by  Mr. 
Fitch,  whom  he  had  trained  to  the  work. 

Botanists  do  not  need  to  be  told  how  rich  these  journals 
are  in  materials  illustrative  of  North  American  botany,  con- 
taining as  they  do  accounts  of  collections  made  by  Scouler, 
Drummond,  Douglas,  Geyer,  etc.  Equally  important  for  the 
botany  of  our  western  coast,  especially  of  California,  is  "  The 
Botany  of  Captain  Beech's  Voyage"  (4to),  in  the  elaboration 
of  which  Sir  William  Hooker  was  associated  with  Professor 
Walker -Arnott.  But  his  greatest  contribution  to  North 
American  botany  —  for  which  our  lasting  gratitude  is  due  — 
was  his  "  Flora  Boreali-Americana  "  (2  vols.  4to,  with  238 
plates),  of  which  the  first  part  was  issued  in  1833,  the  last  in 
1840.  Although  denominated  "  the  botany  of  the  Northern 
parts  of  British  America,"  it  embraced  the  whole  continent 
from  Canada  and  Newfoundland,  and  on  the  Pacific  from  the 
borders  of  California,  northward  to  the  Arctic  sea.  Collec- 
tions made  in  the  British  arctic  voyages  had  early  come  into 
his  hands,  as  afterwards  did  all  those  made  in  the  northern 
land  expeditions  by  the  late  Sir  John  Richardson,  Drum- 
mond, etc.,  and  the  great  western  collections  of  Douglas, 
Scouler,  Tolmie,  and  others,  while  his  devoted  correspondents 
in  the  United  States  contributed  everything  they  could  fur- 
nish from  this  region.  So  that  this  work  marks  an  epoch  in 
North  American  botany,  which  now  could  be  treated  as  a 
whole. 

We  should  not  neglect  to  notice  that,  from  the  year  1827 
down  to  his  death,  he  conducted  that  vast  repertory  of  figures 
of  the  ornamental  plants  cultivated  in  Great  Britain,  the 
"  Botanical  Magazine  "  (contributing  over  2500  plates  and 
descriptions)  ;  a  work  always  as  important  to  the  botanist  as 
to  the  cultivator,  and  under  his  editorship  essential  to  both. 


326  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

For  the  use  of  students  at  home,  in  1830  he  produced  the 
"  British  Flora,"  which  ran  through  five  or  six  editions  before 
it  was  consigned  to  his  successor  in  the  chair  at  Glasgow, 
Professor  Arnott,  who  has  edited  two  or  three  more. 

We  have  enumerated  the  principal  works  published  before 
he  returned  to  England,  including  those  which  were  reedited 
or  (as  the  periodicals)  continued  later.  After  twenty  years' 
service  in  the  Scotch  University,  Dr.,  now  Sir  William 
Hooker,  K.  H.  (for  in  1836  he  accepted  from  William  IV. — 
the  last  British  sovereign  who  could  bestow  it  —  the  honor  of 
Knight  of  the  Hanoverian  Order),  was  appointed  by  govern- 
ment to  take  the  direction  of  the  Royal  Gardens  at  Kew,  until 
then  in  the  private  occupation  of  the  crown,  but  now  to  be 
developed  into  a  national  scientific  establishment. 

Even  since  the  death  of  Banks  and  Dryander,  and  while 
Aiton,  the  director,  grew  old  and  lost  any  scientific  ambition 
he  may  once  have  had,  Kew  Gardens  had  declined  in  botanical 
importance.  The  little  they  preserved,  indeed,  was  chiefly 
owing  to  the  scientific  spirit  and  unaided  exertions  of  Mr. 
John  Smith,  then  a  foreman,  afterwards  for  many  years  the 
superintending  gardener  (and  well  known  to  botanists  for  his 
writings  upon  Ferns),  who,  retired  from  his  labors,  still  sur- 
vives to  rejoice  in  the  changed  scene. 

The  idea  of  converting  Kew  Gardens  into  a  great  national 
botanical  establishment  is  thought  to  have  originated  either 
with  Sir  William  Hooker  himself,  or  with  his  powerful  friend, 
and  excellent  patron  of  botany  and  horticulture,  John,  Duke 
of  Bedford,  the  father  of  the  present  British  Premier.  Lord 
John  Russell  was  in  the  ministry  under  Lord  Melbourne  when 
this  project  was  pressed  upon  the  authorities,  and  recom- 
mended to  Parliament  by  the  report  of  a  scientific  commis- 
sion, and,  succeeding  to  the  Premiership,  he  had  the  honor  of 
carrying  it  into  execution  at  the  propitious  moment,  and  in 
the  year  1841,  of  appointing  Sir  William  Hooker  to  the  di- 
rection of  the  new  establishment.  The  choice  could  hardly 
have  been  different,  even  without  such  influential  political 
support ;  indeed  his  patron  and  friend,  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
died  two  years  before  the  appointment  was  made ;  but  Hooker's 


WILLIAM  JACKSON  HOOKER.  327 

special  fitness  for  the  place  was  manifest,  and  his  claims  were 
heartily  seconded  by  the  only  other  botanist  who  could  have 
come  into  competition  with  him  in  this  respect.  We  refer  of 
course  to  Dr.  Lindley.  The  office,  moreover,  was  no  pecuniary 
prize  ;  the  salary  being  only  three  hundred  pounds  a  year  (less, 
we  believe,  than  the  retiring  pension  of  his  unscientific  super- 
annuated predecessor),  "  with  two  hundred  pounds  to  enable 
him  to  rent  such  a  house  as  should  accommodate  his  herba- 
rium and  library,  by  this  time  of  immense  extent,  and  essential, 
we  need  not  say,  to  the  working  of  the  establishment,  whether 
in  a  scientific  or  economic  point  of  view."  The  salary,  if  we 
mistake  not,  has  since  been  increased  in  some  moderate  pro- 
portion to  the  enlarged  responsibilities  and  cares  of  the  vast 
concern  ;  but  up  to  his  death,  so  important  an  auxiliary  as 
his  unrivaled  herbarium,  and  the  greatest  scientific  attraction 
of  the  institution,  was  left  to  be  supported  (excepting  some 
incidental  aid)  out  of  the  Director's  own  private  means. 

Such  record  as  needs  here  be  made  of  Sir  William  Hooker 
as  Director  of  Kew  Gardens  can  be  best  and  most  briefly 
given  mainly  in  the  words  of  a  writer  in  the  "  Gardeners' 
Chronicle  "  for  September  2d,  to  whose  ripe  judgment  and 
experience  we  may  defer. 

k4  Sir  William  entered  upon  his  duties  in  command  of  un- 
usual resources  for  the  development  of  the  gardens,  such  as 
had  never  been  combined  in  any  other  person.  Single  in 
purpose  and  straightforward  in  action,  enthusiastic  in  man- 
ner, and  at  the  same  time  prepared  to  advance  by  degrees,  he 
at  once  won  the  confidence  of  that  branch  of  the  government 
under  which  he  worked.  ...  To  those  in  office  above  him, 
he  imparted  much  of  the  zeal  and  interest  he  himself  felt, 
which  was  proved  by  constant  visits  to  the  gardens,  resulting 
in  invariable  approval  of  what  he  was  doing,  and  promises  of 
aid  for  the  future.  Another  means  at  his  disposal  and  which 
he  at  once  brought  to  bear  on  the  work  in  hand,  was  his  ex- 
tensive foreign  and  colonial  correspondence,  including  espe- 
cially that  with  a  large  number  of  students  whom  he  had 
imbued  with  a  love  of  botany,  and  who  were  scattered  over 
the  most  remote  countries  of  the  globe,  and  several  of  whom, 


328  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

indeed,  remained  in  more  or  less  active  correspondence  with 
the  Director  up  to  the  day  of  his  death.  His  views  were  fur- 
ther greatly  facilitated  by  his  friendly  intercourse  with  the 
foreign  and  colonial  offices,  the  admiralty,  and  the  East  India 
Company,  to  all  of  whom  he  had  the  means  of  rendering  ser- 
vices, by  the  recommendation  of  former  pupils  to  posts  in 
their  employment,  and  by  publishing  the  botanical  results  of 
the  expeditions  they  sent  out.  .  .  . 

"  At  the  time  of  Sir  William's  taking  office,  the  gardens 
consisted  of  eleven  acres,  with  a  most  imperfect  and  generally 
dilapidated  series  of  ten  hot-houses  and  conservatories.  Most 
of  these  have  since  been  gradually  pulled  down,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  great  orangery  (now  used  as  a  museum  for 
woods)  and  the  large  architectural  house  near  the  garden 
gates,  which  has  just  previously  been  removed  from  Bucking- 
ham Palace,  not  one  now  remains.  They  have  been  replaced 
by  twenty-five  structures  (in  most  cases  of  much  larger  di- 
mensions) exclusive  of  the  Palm-stove  and  the  hitherto  un- 
finished great  conservatory  in  the  pleasure  grounds. 

"  To  describe  the  various  improvements  which  have  re- 
sulted in  the  present  establishment,  —  including,  as  it  does, 
a  botanic  garden  of  seventy-five  acres,  a  pleasure  ground  or 
arboretum  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  acres,  three  museums, 
stored  with  many  thousand  specimens  of  vegetable  products, 
and  a  magnificent  library  and  herbarium,  the  finest  in  Europe, 
placed  in  the  late  king  of  Hanover's  house  on  one  side  of 
Kew  Green,  near  the  gardens,  —  would  rather  be  to  give  a 
history  of  the  gardens  than  the  life  of  their  director."  .  .  . 

"  It  might  be  supposed  that  the  twenty-four  years  of  Sir 
William's  life  spent  at  Kew  in  the  above  public  improve- 
ments, added  to  the  daily  correspondence  and  superinten- 
dence of  the  gardens,  would  have  left  little  time  and  energy 
for  scientific  pursuits.  Such,  however,  was  far  from  being 
the  case.  By  keeping  up  the  active  habits  of  his  early  life, 
he  was  enabled  to  get  through  a  greater  amount  of  scientific 
work  than  any  other  botanist  of  his  age." 

From  this  period  his  contributions  to  scientific  botany,  if 
we  except  the  journals  and  illustrated  works  (contained  until 


WILLIAM  JACKSON  HOOKER.  329 

lately,  and  some  of  them  to  the  last),  were  mainly  restricted 
to  his  old  favorites,  the  Ferns.  Some  years  before  he  re- 
moved to  Kew,  he  found  the  veteran  Francis  Bauer,  then  an 
octogenarian,  or  near  it,  employed  in  drawing  under  the 
microscope  admirable  and  faithful  illustrations  of  the  fructi- 
fication of  Ferns.  He  arranged  immediately  for  their  publi- 
cation, drew  up  the  letter-press,  and  so  brought  out,  between 
1838  and  1842,  the  well-known  work  entitled,  "  Genera  Fili- 
cum,  or  illustrations  of  the  Ferns  and  other  allied  genera." 
His  large  quarto,  "  Filices  Exotica?,  in  colored  figures  and 
descriptions  of  exotic  Ferns,  chiefly  of  such  as  are  cultivated 
in  the  Royal  Gardens  of  Kew,"  (100  plates,)  appeared  in 
1859 ;  —  the  drawings  of  these,  as  of  nearly  all  his  illustrated 
works  for  the  last  thirty  years,  by  Walter  Fitch,  his  indefati- 
gable coadjutor,  whom  he  had  trained  in  Scotland,  and  who 
soon  became  "  the  most  distinguished  botanical  artist  in  Eu- 
rope." "  A  Second  Century  of  Ferns  "  (imp.  8vo)  was  pub- 
lished in  1860  and  1861,  the  First  Century  being  the  tenth 
and  closing  volume  of  the  "  Icones  Plantarum." 

But  the  principal  systematic  work  of  these  later  years  was 
his  "  Species  Filicum,  being  descriptions  of  the  known  Ferns, 
.  .  .  accompanied  with  numerous  figures,"  in  five  volumes, 
8vo.  The  first  volume  of  this  work  appeared  in  1846,  and 
the  last  only  a  year  and  a  half  ago. 

The  crowd  of  new  Ferns  and  the  new  knowledge  which  has 
accumulated  in  the  interval  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  years, 
demanded  large  revision  and  augmentation  of  the  earlier  vol- 
umes to  bring  them  up  to  the  level  of  the  later  ones.  More- 
over, a  compendious  work  on  this  favorite  class  of  plants  was 
much  needed.  Both  objects  might  be  well  accomplished  by 
a  synopsis  of  known  Ferns  in  a  single  volume,  to  be  for  our 
day  what  Swartz's  "  Synopsis  Filicum  "  was  just  sixty  years 
ago.  To  this  Sir  William  Hooker,  upon  the  verge  of  four- 
score, undauntedly  turned,  as  soon  as  the  last  sheets  of  the 
"  Species  Filicum  "  passed  from  his  hands,  devoting  to  it 
the  time  that  remained  after  attending  to  his  administrative 
duties.  Upon  it  he  steadily  labored,  with  unabated  zeal  and 
with  powers  almost  unimpaired,  conscientiously  diligent  and 


330  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

constitutionally  buoyant  to  the  last.  He  had  made  no  small 
progress  in  the  work,  and  had  carried  the  sheets  of  the  initial 
number  through  the  press,  when  an  attack  of  diphtheria,  then 
epidemic  at  Kew,  suddenly  closed  his  long,  honored  and  most 
useful  life. 

Our  survey  of  what  Sir  William  Hooker  did  for  science 
would  be  incomplete  indeed,  if  it  were  confined  to  his  pub- 
lished works  —  numerous  and  important  as  they  are  —  and 
the  wise  and  efficient  administration  through  which,  in  a 
short  space  of  twenty-four  years,  a  Queen's  flower  and  kit- 
chen-garden and  pleasure-grounds  have  been  transformed 
into  an  imperial  botanical  establishment  of  unrivaled  interest 
and  value.  Account  should  be  taken  of  the  spirit  in  which 
he  worked,  of  the  researches  and  explorations  he  promoted, 
of  the  aid  and  encouragement  he  extended  to  his  fellow- 
laborers,  especially  to  young  and  rising  botanists,  and  of  the 
means  and  appliances  he  gathered  for  their  use  no  less  than 
for  his  own. 

The  single-mindedness  with  which  he  gave  himself  to  his 
scientific  work,  and  the  conscientiousness  with  which  he  lived 
for  science  while  he  lived  by  it,  were  above  all  praise.  Emi- 
nently fitted  to  shine  in  society,  remarkably  good-looking  and 
of  the  most  pleasing  address,  frank,  cordial,  and  withal  of 
a  very  genial  disposition,  he  never  dissipated  his  time  and 
energies  in  the  round  of  fashionable  life,  but  ever  avoided  the 
social  prominence  and  wrorldly  distinctions  which  some  sedu- 
lously seek.  So  that,  however  it  may  or  ought  to  be  regarded 
in  a  country  where  court  honors  and  government  rewards  have 
a  factitious  importance,  we  count  it  a  high  compliment  to  his 
sense  and  modesty  that  no  such  distinctions  were  ever  con- 
ferred upon  him  in  recognition  of  all  that  he  accomplished 
at  Kew. 

Nor  was  there  in  him,  while  standing  in  a  position  like  that 
occupied  by  Banks  and  Smith  in  his  early  days,  the  least 
manifestation  of  a  tendency  to  overshadow  the  science  writh 
his  own  importance,  or  of  indifference  to  its  general  advance- 
ment. Far  from  monopolizing  even  the  choicest  botanical 
materials  which  large  expenditure  of  time  and  toil  and  money 


WILLIAM  JACKSON  HOOKER.  331 

brought  into  his  hands,  he  delighted  in  setting  other  botanists 
to  work  on  whatever  portion  they  wished  to  elaborate  ;  not 
only  imparting  freely,  even  to  young  and  untried  men  of 
promise,  the  multitude  of  specimens  he  could  distribute,  and 
giving  to  all  comers  full  access  to  his  whole  herbarium,  but 
sending  portions  of  it  to  distant  investigators,  so  long  as  this 
could  be  done  without  too  great  detriment  or  inconvenience. 
He  not  only  watched  for  opportunities  for  attaching  botanists 
to  government  expeditions  and  voyages,  and  secured  the  pub- 
lication of  their  results,  but  also  largely  assisted  many  private 
collectors,  whose  fullest  sets  are  among  the  treasures  of  far 
the  richest  herbarium  ever  accumulated  in  one  man's  lifetime, 
if  not  the  amplest  anywhere  in  existence. 

One  of  the  later  and  not  least  important  services  which  Sir 
William  Hooker  has  rendered  to  botany  is  the  inauguration, 
through  his  recommendation  and  influence,  of  a  plan  for  the 
publication,  under  government  patronage,  of  the  Floras  of  the 
different  British  colonies  and  possessions,  scattered  over  every 
part  of  the  world.  Some  of  these  (that  of  Hongkong  and 
that  of  the  British  West  Indies)  are  already  completed ; 
others  (like  that  of  Australia,  and  the  Cape  Flora  of  Harvey 
and  Sonder,  adopted  into  the  series)  are  in  course  of  publica- 
tion ;  and  still  others  are  ready  to  be  commenced. 

The  free  and  cordial  way  in  which  Hooker  worked  in  con- 
junction with  others  is  partly  seen  in  the  various  names  which 
are  associated  with  his  authorship.  This  came  in  part  from 
the  wide  range  of  subjects  over  which  his  survey  extended, 
a  range  which  must  have  contributed  much  to  the  breadth  of 
his  views  and  the  sureness  of  his  judgment.  Invaluable  as 
such  extent  of  study  is,  in  the  present  state  and  prospects  of 
our  science  we  can  hardly  expect  to  see  again  a  botanist  so 
widely  and  so  well  acquainted  both  with  Cryptogenic  and 
Phanerogamic  botany,  or  one  capable  of  doing  so  much  for 
the  advancement  and  illustration  of  both. 

Our  narrative  of  Sir  William  Hooker's  scientific  career 
and  our  estimate  of  his  influence  has,  we  trust,  clearly,  though 
incidentally,  informed  our  readers  what  manner  of  man  lie 
was.     To  the  wide   circle  of  botanists,  in  which  he   has  long 


332  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

filled  so  conspicuous  a  place,  to  his  surviving  American  friends 
and  correspondents,  some  of  whom  have  known  him  long  and 
well,  —  and  "  none  knew  him  but  to  love  him,  or  named  him 
but  to  praise,"  —  it  is  superfluous  to  say  that  Sir  William 
Hooker  was  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  men,  a  model 
Christian  gentleman. 

There  could  really  be  no  question  as  to  the  succession  to 
the  charge  of  the  great  botanical  establishment  at  Kew.  But 
we  may  add,  for  the  information  of  many  of  our  readers,  that 
the  directorship  vacated  by  Sir  William's  death  has  been 
filled  by  the  appointment  of  his  only  surviving  son,  Dr.  Joseph 
Dalton  Hooker,  whose  well-established  scientific  fame  and 
ability,  no  less  than  his  lineage,  may  assure  the  continued 
equally  successful  administration  of  this  most  interesting  and 
important  trust. 


JOHN   LINDLEY.1 

John  Lindley,  one  of  the  most  renowned  botanists  of  the 
age,  died  at  his  residence  near  London,  on  the  1st  of  Novem- 
ber last,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six  years.  He  was  born  at  Catton, 
near  Norwich,  where  his  father  was  a  nurseryman,  on  Feb- 
ruary 5,  1799 ;  and  was  educated  at  the  Norwich  Grammar 
School,  as  was  his  friend  and  earliest  scientific  acquaintance, 
Sir  William  Hooker.  It  was  at  the  house  of  the  latter,  soon 
after  his  removal  to  Halesworth,  that  young  Lindley  began 
his  career  of  authorship  by  translating  Richard's  "  Analyse 
du  Fruit,"  which  was  published  in  1819.  He  appears  already 
to  have  devoted  himself  to  botanical  and  horticultural  pur- 
suits, and,  it  is  said,  had  arranged  to  visit  Sumatra  and  the 
Malayan  Islands ;  but  for  some  reason,  perhaps  connected 
with  his  father's  reverses  in  business,  the  project  was  aban- 
doned. At  this  juncture  he  was  introduced  by  his  friend 
Hooker  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  who  employed  him  as  his  assist- 
ant librarian.  Sir  Joseph  recommended  him  to  Mr.  Cattley, 
for  whom  he  edited  the  folio  "  Collectanea  Botanica,"  illus- 
trating some  of  the  new  and  curious  plants  cultivated  in  Mr. 
Cattley's  collection.  He  had  already  published  his  "  Mono- 
graph of  Roses  "  (1820)  and  his  "  Monograph  of  Digitalis  " 
(1821),  the  latter  illustrated  by  plates  from  Ferdinand 
Bauer's  drawings.  The  next  year  (1822)  began  his  connec- 
tion with  the  Horticultural  Society,  as  garden  assistant  sec- 
retary, when  he  took  charge  of  the  laying  out  of  the  garden 
at  Chiswick.  In  1826  he  became  sole  assistant  secretary, 
Mr.  Sabine  being  honorary  secretary  until  1830,  and  then 
Mr.  Bentham  until  1841  ;  nearly  the  whole  active  charge  of 
the  establishment  falling  upon  Dr.  Lindley.  Then,  as  vice- 
secretary  he  conducted  the  operations  of  this  great  and  pros- 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xli.  2Go.     (18GG.) 


334  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

perous  society,  with  almost  undivided  responsibility  until 
1858,  when,  dropping  the  laboring  oar,  he  became  secretary 
and  member  of  the  council,  and  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
reorganization  of  the  society,  until,  fairly  broken  down  by 
overwork,  in  1862  he  was  obliged  to  retire  from  the  manage- 
ment. Besides  his  work  in  the  Horticultural  Society,  suffi- 
cient in  itself  to  task  any  ordinary  powers,  Dr.  Lindley  was 
professor  of  botany  in  University  College  from  1829  to  1861, 
giving  elaborate  courses  of  lectures  every  year,  and  also  lec- 
turer at  the  Apothecaries  Garden  at  Chelsea  for  nearly  the 
same  period.  He  conducted  the  "  Botanical  Register  "  from 
about  1823  (although  his  name  does  not  appear  upon  the 
title-page  until  somewhat  later)  down  to  its  close  in  1847  ; 
he  did  the  principal  botanical  work  in  Loudon's  tk  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Plants,"  and  wrote  the  botanical  articles  for  the 
"  Penny  Cyclopedia,"  down  to  the  letter  R ;  contributed  to 
the  Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Horticultural  Society, 
and  edited  its  Journal ;  prepared  the  later  volumes  of  Sib- 
thorp's  magnificent  "Flora  Graeca,"  etc.,  etc. ;  besides  writing 
and  often  reediting  his  numerous  classical  botanical  works, 
which,  with  bis  lectures  to  successive  classes  of  pupils  inspired 
by  his  own  ardor,  have  made  his  name  so  famous  wherever 
botany  is  cultivated.  Of  these  numerous  works  we  can  men- 
tion only  the  principal.  His  "  Synopsis  of  the  British  Flora  " 
arranged  according  to  the  Natural  Orders,  first  issued  in  1829, 
has  only  a  local  and  historical  interest,  as  a  part  of  his  suc- 
cessful endeavors  to  introduce  and  popularize  the  natural 
system  in  England,  where  it  had  peculiar  obstacles  to  contend 
against.  His  "  Genera  and  Species  of  Orchidaceous  Plants," 
with  his  "  Sertum  Orchidaceum,"  and,  later,  his  "  Folia 
Orchidacea"  (which  he  was  able  only  to  commence),  embody 
a  portion  of  his  labors  upon  an  important  and  curious  family 
of  plants,  upon  which  he  became  the  paramount  authority. 
His  "  Introduction  to  Botany,"  which  ran  through  four  edi- 
tions, his  outlines  of  the  "  First  Principles  of  Botany,"  at 
length  expanded  into  his  "  Elements  of  Botany,"  and  his 
"  School  Botany,"  form  a  series  of  introductory  works  which 
have  done  much  more  for  botanical  instruction  than  any  others 


JOHN  L1NDLEY.  335 

in  the  English  language.  By  his  "  Flora  Medica  "  he  supplied 
to  medical  students  a  good  botanical  account  of  all  the  more 
important  plants  used  in  medicine.  By  his  "Theory  of  Hor- 
ticulture," explaining  the  principal  operations  of  gardening 
upon  physiological  principles,  in  connection  with  his  articles 
upon  the  subject  in  the  "  Gardeners'  Chronicle,"  he  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  raised  this  branch  of  knowledge  "  from 
the  conditions  of  an  empirical  art  to  that  of  a  developed 
science."  Aud,  finally,  in  his  "  Introduction  to  the  Natural 
System  of  Botany,"  the  first  edition  of  which,  published  in 
1830,  was  the  earliest  systematic  exposition  of  the  natural 
system  in  the  English  language,  or  fairly  available  to  English 
and  American  students,  and  his  further  development  of  this 
work  into  his  classical  "  Vegetable  Kingdom,"  —  the  one  book 
which  may  take  the  place  of  a  botanical  library,  —  Dr.  Lind- 
ley  made  his  most  important  contributions  to  the  advancement 
of  systematic  botany.  The  coming  generation  of  botanists 
cannot  be  expected  to  appreciate  the  vast  influence  exerted 
by  the  earlier  of  these  works  in  its  day;  the  latter,  however 
open  to  adverse  criticism  in  particulars,  is  still  unrivaled  and 
is  probably  "  that  by  which  his  name  will  be  best  known  to 
posterity."  Physiologist,  morphologist,  and  systematist,  he 
displayed  equal  genius  in  all  these  departments  of  the  science, 
but  he  worked  too  rapidly  to  do  himself  full  justice  in  any  of 
them.  "His  power  of  work  was  indeed  astonishing;  what- 
ever he  undertook  (and  his  undertakings  were  wonderful  in 
amount  and  variety)  he  did  with  the  utmost  conscientiousness, 
never  flagging  until  he  had  done  it;  and  he  was  a  splendid 
example  of  what  can  be  accomplished  by  a  man  of  strong  will, 
habitually  acting  up  to  his  oft-repeated  saying,  that  to  method, 
zeal,  and  perseverance  nothing  is  impossible."  "Until  he  had 
passed  fifty  years  of  age,"  it  is  stated  that  "he  never  knew 
what  it  was  to  feel  tired  either  in  body  or  mind."  Such  per- 
sons are  sure  to  be  overtasked.  The  Great  Exhibition  of  1  Sol, 
adding  protracted  and  onerous  duties  to  his  ordinary  work, 
prostrated  him  with  serious  illness;  the  Second  Exhibition, 
in  1862,  in  which  he  took  charge  of  the  whole  colonial  de- 
partment, fatally  injured  his   bodily  and   mental  powers,  and 


336  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

cut  short  his  scientific  career.  He  was  able,  however,  to  enjoy 
the  society  of  his  immediate  friends  and  to  keep  up  an  interest 
in  his  favorite  pursuits  quite  to  the  close,  which  occurred  from 
an  apoplectic  attack,  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  November 
last. 

Dr.  Lindley  was  a  man  of  marked  character.  While  his 
biographer  declared  that  "  he  was  hot  in  temper  and  impa- 
tient of  opposition,"  he  no  less  truly  adds  that,  "  on  the  other 
hand,  he  had  the  warmest  of  hearts  and  the  most  generous  of 
dispositions."  He  seemed  as  incapable  of  cherishing  a  resent- 
ment, as  of  repressing  the  expression  of  indignation  for  what 
he  thought  wrong  ;  and  if  at  times  he  made  enemies,  he  was 
almost  sure  in  time  to  convert  his  enemies  into  friends. 


WILLIAM   HENRY  HARVEY.1 

William  Henry  Harvey  was  born  at  Summerville,  near 
Limerick,  Ireland,  on  the  5th  of  February,  1811.  His  father, 
Joseph  M.  Harvey,  was  a  highly  respected  merchant  in  that 
city  and  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  William  Henry 
was,  we  believe,  the  youngest  of  several  children.  He  received 
a  good  education  at  Ballitore  school,  —  an  institution  of  the 
Friends,  —  and  on  leaving  it  was  engaged  for  a  time  in  his  fa- 
ther's counting-room,  devoting,  however,  all  his  spare  time  to 
natural  history,  his  favorite  pursuit  even  from  boyhood.  He 
made  considerable  attainments  in  entomology  and  conchology, 
and  in  botany  he  early  turned  his  attention  to  Mosses  and 
Algce.  To  the  study  of  the  latter,  in  which  he  became  pre- 
eminent, he  was  attracted  from  the  first  by  the  opportunities 
which  he  enjoyed  on  the  productive  western  coast  of  Ireland, 
the  family  usually  spending  a  good  part  of  the  summer  at  the 
seaside,  mostly  on  the  bold  and  picturesque  shore  of  Clare. 
As  the  late  Sir  William  Hooker's  bent  for  botany  was  fixed 
by  his  accidental  discovery  of  a  rare  moss,  which  he  took  to 
Sir  J.  E.  Smith,  so  in  turn  was  Harvey's,  by  his  discovery  of 
two  new  habitats  of  another  rare  moss,  the  Hbokeria  Icete- 
virens,  which  led  to  a  correspondence  with  Hooker,  and  to 
a  life-long  mutual  attachment  of  these  most  excellent  men. 
Encouraged  by  his  illustrious  friend  and  patron,  Harvey 
sought  some  position  in  which  he  might  devote  himself  to  sci- 
ence ;  and  it  would  appear  was  selected  by  Mr.  Spring  Kice 
(the  late  Lord  Monteagle)  for  the  post  of  colonial  treasurer 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  that  by  some  accident  the 
appointment  was  made  out  in  the  name  of  an  elder  brother, 
and  an  inopportune  change  of  ministry  frustrated  all  attempts 
at  rectification.  There  was  no  other  way  but  for  the  brother 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xlii.  273.     (18G0.) 


338  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

to  accept  the  undesigned  appointment,  and  to  take  the  young 
botanist  with  him  to  the  Cape  as  his  assistant.  This  was  done, 
and  the  brothers  sailed  for  that  colony  in  the  year  1835.  But 
the  health  of  the  elder  brother  suddenly  and  hopelessly  failed 
within  a  year,  and  he  died  in  1836  on  the  passage  home. 
William  Harvey's  appointment  to  succeed  his  brother  had 
been  sent  to  the  Cape  while  he  was  on  his  homeward  voyage  : 
he  immediately  returned  to  his  post,  and  fulfilled  its  duties  for 
three  years,  devoting  his  mornings  to  collecting  and  his  nights 
to  botanical  investigation,  with  such  assiduity  that  his  health 
also  gave  way,  and  he  was  compelled  to  return  home  in  1839. 
The  summer  of  the  next  year  found  him  reestablished  and  on 
his  way  to  the  Cape  for  the  third  time.  But  he  could  not 
long  endure  the  sultry  climate  and  the  intense  application  ; 
with  broken  health  he  came  back  in  1841  and  gave  up  the 
appointment. 

After  two  years  of  prostration  and  seclusion  he  was  well 
again ;  and  in  1844,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Coulter,  he  was  ap- 
pointed keeper  of  the  herbarium  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
The  most  important  portion  of  the  herbarium  then  consisted 
of  the  collections,  yet  unassorted,  made  by  Coulter  in  north- 
western Mexico  and  California.  Harvey  generously  added 
his  own  large  collections,  for  which  he  was  allowed  fifty 
pounds  a  year,  in  addition  to  a  slender  salary,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  build  up  the  herbarium  into  a  first-class  estab- 
lishment. The  professorship  of  botany  in  the  college,  which 
was  pretty  well  endowed,  fell  vacant  about  this  time ;  and  the 
college  authorities,  wishing  to  elect  Harvey  to  the  chair  and 
so  to  combine  the  two  offices,  conferred  upon  him  the  neces- 
sary degree  of  M.  D.  But  it  was  contended  that  an  honorary 
degree  did  not  meet  the  requirements,  and  so  Dr.  Allman,  the 
present  distinguished  professor  of  natural  history  at  Edin- 
burgh, carried  the  election. 

Except  for  the  slenderness  of  his  salary,  Dr.  Harvey  was 
now  well  placed  for  scientific  work,  the  object  to  which  he 
wished  to  devote  his  life  ;  and  he  entered  upon  and  pursued 
his  distinguished  career  henceforth  with  an  entire  and  well- 
directed  energy  that  never  flagged  until  he  was  prostrated  by 
mortal  disease. 


WILLIAM  HENRY  HARVEY. 


339 


He  had  already  published,  at  the  Cape,  in  1838,  his  "  Ge- 
nera of  South  African  Plants,"  hastily  prepared,  solely  for 
local  use,  but  no  unworthy  beginning  of  his  work  in  Phsenoga- 
mous  botany  ;  and  in  his  favorite  department  of  the  science 
he  had  brought  out,  in  1841,  his  "  Manual  of  British  Algae," 
which  he  reedited  in  1849.  He  now  commenced  the  first  of 
the  series  of  his  greatest  works,  illustrated  by  his  facile 
pencil,  for  he  drew  admirably.  The  first  (monthly)  part  of 
his  excellent  and  beautiful  "  Phycologia  Britannica,  a  History 
of  British  Seaweeds,"  containing  colored  figures  of  all  the 
species  inhabiting  the  shores  of  the  British  Islands,  appeared 
in  January,  1846  ;  and  the  undertaking  was  completed  in 
1851  in  three  (or  four)  volumes,  with  three  hundred  and  sixty 
plates,  all  drawn  on  stone  by  his  own  hand.  A  similar  but 
less  extended  work,  the  "  Nereis  Australis,  or  Alga>  of  the 
Southern  Ocean,"  which  was  begun  in  1847,  was  carried  only 
to  fifty  plates  of  selected  and  beautiful  species. 

In  1848,  Dr.  Harvey  succeeded  Dr.  Litton  as  professor  of 
botany  in  the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  to  which  belonged  the 
botanic  garden  at  Glasnevin  ;  this  required  him  to  deliver 
short  courses  of  lectures  annually  in  Dublin  or  some  other 
Irish  town,  and  provided  a  welcome  addition  to  his  income. 

In  1848,  at  the  request  of  his  friend  Van  Voorst,  the  pub- 
lisher,  he  wrote  his  charming  little  volume,  "  The  Seaside 
Book,"  the  unsurpassed  model  of  that  class  of  popular  scien- 
tific books ;  it  was  published  in  1849,  and  has  passed  through 
several  editions.  In  July  of  that  year,  having  arranged  a 
visit  to  this  country,  and  having  been  invited  to  deliver  a 
course  of  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  lie  took  steamer 
for  Halifax  and  Boston,  passed  the  summer  and  autumn  in 
exploring  the  shores  of  the  northern  States,  and  in  the  society 
of  his  friends  and  relatives  ;  for  the  late  Mr.  Jacob  Harvey, 
still  well  and  pleasantly  remembered  in  New  York,  who 
married  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Hosack,  was  his  elder  brother. 
In  the  autumn  he  gave  an  admirable  course  of  lectures  upon 
Cryptogamic  botany  before  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston, 
and  afterwards  a  shorter  course  at  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion at  Washington.     He  then  traveled  in  the  southern  At- 


340  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

lantic  States,  continuing  the  exploration  of  our  Algce  down 
to  Florida  and  the  Keys  ;  and  in  May,  1850,  he  returned  to 
Ireland.  Under  the  wise  and  liberal  arrangements  made  by 
Professor  Henry  in  behalf  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
and  with  his  own  large  collections  augmented  by  the  contribu- 
tions which  every  student  or  lover  of  Algce  was  glad  to  place 
in  such  worthy  hands,  Professor  Harvey  now  prepared  his 
"  Nereis  Boreali- Americana,  or  Contributions  to  a  History  of 
the  Marine  Algae  of  North  America."  The  work  is  a  sys- 
tematic account  of  all  the  known  Marine  Algce  of  North 
America,  but  with  figures  only  of  the  leading  species.  It  was 
issued  in  three  parts  :  the  first  part,  the  Melanos2ier?nece,  in 

1852,  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to 
Knowledge  ;  the  second,  Iihoclosjiermece,  in  the  fifth  volume  ; 
and  the  third,  or  Chlorospermece,  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the 
series,  published  in  1858  ;  and  the  three  parts,  collected  for 
separate  issue,  compose  a  thick  imperial  quarto  volume,  of 
five  hundred  and  fifty  pages  of  letter-press  and  fifty  plates. 
The  work  remains  the  principal  if  not  the  only  guide  to  the 
American  student  of  Algce,  and  one  of  the  most  popular  as 
well  as  useful  of  the  various  contributions  to  knowledge 
which  the  well-managed  bequest  of  Smithson  has  given  to 
the  world. 

Before  the  last  part  of  the  "Nereis  Boreali- Americana " 
was  published,  Professor  Harvey  had  sought  a  wider  field  of 
scientific  labor  and  observation.  Obtaining  a  long  leave  of 
absence,  and  some  assistance  from  the  University  in  addition 
to  the  continuance  of  his  salary,  he  left  England  in  August, 

1853,  by  the  overland  route  for  Australia,  stopping  at  Aden 
and  Ceylon  to  collect :  he  visited  the  east,  south,  and  west 
coasts  of  Australia,  as  well  as  Tasmania.  Taking  advantage 
of  a  missionary  ship,  which  was  to  cruise  among  the  South  Sea 
Islands,  and  which  offered  him  unexpected  facilities,  he  vis- 
ited the  Fiji,  Navigators',  and  Friendly  Islands,  touching  also 
at  New  Zealand.  Returning  to  Sydney,  he  sailed  to  Valpa- 
raiso, which  he  reached  much  prostrated  through  over-exer- 
tion in  a  warm  climate ;  and  when  recuperated  he  re- 
turned home  by  way  of  the  Isthmus,  arriving  in  October, 


WILLIAM  HENRY  HARVEY.  341 

1856.  The  algological  collections  of  these  three  laborious 
years,  or  the  Australian  portion  of  them,  formed  the  subject 
of  Professor  Harvey's  third  great  illustrated  work,  and  one  of 
the  most  exquisite  of  the  kind,  the  "  Phycologia  Australica," 
the  serial  publication  of  which  began  in  1858  and  was  con- 
cluded in  18G3,  in  five  imperial  octavo  volumes,  each  of  sixty 
colored  plates.  All  but  the  last  century  of  plates  wire  pat 
upon  stone  by  the  author. 

Upon  Dr.  Harvey's  return  in  1856  from  his  long  expedition 
he  found  the  chair  of  botany  in  the  University  of  Dublin 
vacated  by  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Allman  to  that  of  natural 
history  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh  ;  and  lie  was  at  once 
preferred  to  the  position  which  he  had  sought  when  younger 
and  freer,  and  which  he  now  occupied  till  his  death.  The  ex- 
hausting duties  of  this  chair,  and  of  that  which  he  still  held  in 
the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  undiminished  by  the  transference 
to  the  government  Museum  of  Irish  Industry,  did  not  pre- 
vent Professor  Harvey  from  entering  with  unabated  ardor 
upon  an  undertaking  of  greater  magnitude  than  any  preced- 
ing one.  This  was  the  "  Flora  Capensis,"  a  full  systematic 
account  of  all  the  plants  of  the  Cape  Colony  and  the  adjacent 
provinces  of  Caffraria  and  Natal,  —  in  which  he  was  a-><>- 
ciated  with  Dr.  Sonder  of  Hamburg.  Three  thick  octavo 
volumes  of  this  work  have  appeared,  the  last  in  1865,  includ- 
ing the  Comjiositce.  Along  with  this  Dr.  Harvey  —  learn- 
ing for  the  purpose  another  form  of  lithographic  drawing  — 
brought  out,  between  the  years  1859  and  1864,  two  volumes 
of  his  "Thesaurus  Capensis,  or  Illustrations  of  the  South 
African  Flora,"  comprising  two  hundred  plates  of  interesting 
phaBnogamous  plants.  A  complete  list  of  his  publications 
would  include  several  contributions  to  scientific  periodicals, 
mainly  to  "  Hooker's  Journal  of  Botany,"  and  a  few  miscel- 
laneous writings. 

In  April,  1861,  Dr.  Harvey  married  Miss  Phelps  of  Lime- 
rick. If  not  robust,  he  was  apparently  in  good  health,  in  the 
full  maturity  of  his  powers,  and  it  was  hoped  only  at  the 
noonday  of  his  allotted  course  of  usefulness.  Bui  ere  the  lec- 
ture season  of  that  summer  was  over,  an  attack  of  hemorrhage 


342  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

from  the  lungs  gave  notice  of  a  serious  pulmonary  disease. 
Yet  he  seemed  to  recover  from  this  almost  completely :  he 
resumed  his  stated  work,  and  gave  his  lectures  as  usual  in 
1863,  and  also  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  but  with 
some  difficulty.  The  winter  and  spring  of  1864-65  were 
spent  in  the  south  of  France,  with  only  transient  benefit. 
Returning  to  his  home  and  his  herbarium,  he  worked  on  still 
at  the  Cape  Flora,  with  cheerful  spirit  but  feeble  hands,  until 
he  could  work  no  longer.  Last  spring  he  sought  in  Devon- 
shire a  milder  air,  and  found  a  peaceful  rest.  "  On  Tuesday, 
the  15th  of  May,  1866,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  years,  he  quiet- 
ly breathed  his  last,  at  the  residence  of  Lady  Hooker,  the 
widow  of  his  long-attached  friend  Sir  William  J.  Hooker, 
surrounded  by  kind  and  anxious  relatives  and  friends,  and 
was  buried  in  the  cemetery  at  Torquay  on  Saturday,  the  19th 
of  May." 

Mr.  Harvey  was  one  of  the  few  botanists  of  our  day  who 
excelled  both  in  Phsenogamic  and  Cryptogamic  botany.  In 
Algology,  his  favorite  branch,  he  left  probably  no  superior  ; 
in  systematic  botany  generally  he  had  won  an  eminent  posi- 
tion. He  was  a  keen  observer  and  a  capital  describer.  He 
investigated  accurately,  worked  readily  and  easily  with  mi- 
croscope, pencil,  and  pen,  wrote  perspicuously,  and  where  the 
subject  permitted,  with  captivating  grace,  affording,  in  his 
lighter  productions,  mere  glimpses  of  the  warm  and  poetical 
imagination,  delicate  humor,  refined  feeling,  and  sincere  good- 
ness which  were  charmingly  revealed  in  intimate  intercourse 
and  correspondence,  and  which  won  the  admiration  and  the 
love  of  all  who  knew  him  well.  Handsome  in  person,  gentle 
and  fascinating  in  manners,  genial  and  warm-hearted,  but  of 
very  retiring  disposition,  simple  in  his  tastes  and  unaffectedly 
devout,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  attracted  friends  wherever 
he  went,  so  that  his  death  will  be  sensibly  felt  on  every  con- 
tinent and  in  the  islands  of  the  sea. 


HENRY    P.   SARTWELL.1 

Dr.  Henry  P.  Sartwell  died  at  Penn  Yan,  New  York, 
on  the  15th  of  November,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five  years. 
He  was,  we  believe,  indigenous  to  the  western  part  of  the 
state  of  New  York,  and  when  a  medical  student  resided  at 
Gorham,  Ontario  County.  More  than  forty  years  ago  he  was 
established  as  a  physician  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Penn 
Yan,  where  he  passed  his  honorable  and  useful  life,  engaged 
to  the  last  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  It  is  said  that 
the  illness  of  which  he  died  was  brought  on  by  over-exertion 
in  attendance  at  the  bedside  of  a  sick  friend.  He  was  fond 
of  all  branches  of  natural  history,  and  a  diligent  observer  and 
collector  in  more  than  one ;  but  in  botany  he  has  secured  an 
enduring  reputation.  He  was  in  his  way  a  model  local  bota- 
nist. He  thoroughly  explored  the  district  within  his  reach ; 
he  prepared  admirable  specimens  in  great  numbers,  and  dis- 
tributed them  with  a  free  hand.  Few  botanists  in  this  coun- 
try have  contributed  to  so  many  herbaria,  home  or  foreign, 
none  more  disinterestedly  and  generously.  He  accumulated 
a  large  herbarium,  specially  rich  and  attractive  in  plants  of 
western  New  York,  in  Carices  and  Ferns.  Desirous  of  insur- 
ing its  preservation  and  future  usefulness,  and  needing  in  his 
old  age  the  very  moderate  sum  which  it  would  bring  him,  he 
a  few  years  ago  transferred  his  herbarium  to  Hamilton  Col- 
lege, where  it  is  valued  and  well  cared  for.  Most  local  bota- 
nists, when  they  have  nearly  exhausted  the  resources  of  the 
district  they  are  confined  to,  are  liable  to  sink  into  inactivity. 
Dr.  Sartwell  avoided  this  destiny,  and  prolonged  to  the  last 
his  enjoyment  and  usefulness,  by  making  a  specialty  of  the 
great  genus  Carex.  Dewey,  Torrey,  Tuckerman,  Carey, 
Boott,  all  who  have  published  within  the  last  thirty  years 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts.  2  ser.,  xlv.  121.     (1868.) 


344  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

upon  this  genus,  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  acknowledge 
their  obligations  to  him ;  and  he  erected  for  himself  a  monu- 
ment of  his  zeal  and  devotion,  and  a  testimony  to  his  powers 
of  observation,  in  his  "  Carices  America?  Septentrionalis  Ex- 
siccata3,"  the  first  part  of  which  was  issued  in  the  year  1848, 
the  second  in  1850 ;  while  his  interest  and  activity  in  the 
study  continued  with  little  abatement  down  to  the  last  year 
or  two.  He  published  nothing  else,  we  believe,  excepting  a 
"  Catalogue  of  the  Plants  growing  in  the  vicinity  of  Penn 
Yan  " ;  but  he  contributed  no  little  to  the  value  of  the  pub- 
lications of  others,  especially  to  those  of  the  writer  of  this 
notice,  and  to  the  "Flora  of  the  State  of  New  York."  The 
Carex  which  had  been  dedicated  to  Dr.  Sartwell  has  proved 
to  be  identical  with  an  old  European  species,  but  a  very  dis- 
tinct and  peculiar  genus  of  Composites  found  in  southwestern 
Texas,  keeps  up  the  name  of  Sartwellia.  His  most  intimate 
associate  in  caricological  study  survived  him  only  one  month. 


CHESTER    DEWEY.1 

Professor  Chester  Dewey  died  at  Rochester,  New 
York,  December  13,  having  completed  the  eighty-third  year 
of  his  age.  "  He  was  born  at  Sheffield,  Massachusetts,  Oc- 
tober 25,  1784 ;  was  graduated  at  Williams  College  in  180G  ; 
studied  for  the  ministry ;  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1808, 
and  during  the  latter  half  of  that  year  officiated  in  Ty ring- 
ham  in  western  Massachusetts.  The  same  year  he  accepted 
a  tutorship  in  Williams  College,  and  in  1810  was  appointed 
professor  of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy,  an  office 
which  he  discharged  for  seventeen  years.  During  his  con- 
nection with  the  college  he  did  much  to  advance  the  standard 
of  scholarship  and  enlarge  the  course  of  study  in  his  own  and 
kindred  departments.  Between  1827  and  1836  he  was  prin- 
cipal of  the  '  Gymnasium,'  a  high  school  for  boys  at  Pitts- 
field,  Massachusetts.  In  the  latter  year  he  removed  to  this 
city  (Rochester),  and  became  principal  of  the  Rochester 
Collegiate  Institute,  which  post  he  held  until  1850,  when  he 
was  elected  professor  of  chemistry  and  natural  philosophy  in 
the  Rochester  University.  He  was  actively  engaged  in  the 
duties  of  that  position  till  18G0,  when  he  retired  at  the  age  of 
seventy-seven,  though  he  continued  to  teach  to  some  extent 
till  his  eightieth  year.  The  last  four  years  he  has  passed  in 
easy  and  dignified  retirement,  happy  in  the  society  of  his  fam- 
ily and  friends,  beloved  and  respected  by  all,  and  occupying 
himself  still  with  his  scientific  studies  and  with  meteorological 
observations,  which  he  conducted  with  great  care  and  regu- 
larity." 

Dr.  Dewey  was  an  early  and  a  frequent  contributor  to  this 
Journal,  upon  several  subjects,  but  ('specially  upon  that  with 
which  his  name  is  inseparably  connected,  the  Ca rices  of 
North  America.     His  "  Cartography,"  commenced  in  l>-4. 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xlv.  122.     (1808.) 


346  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

was  continued  year  after  j^ear  with  few  breaks,  down  to  the 
close  of  1866,  when  it  terminated  with  a  general  Index  to 
Species.  It  is  not  for  us  to  speak  particularly  of  the  merits 
of  this  elaborate  monograph,  patiently  prosecuted  through 
more  than  forty  years.  This  and  the  monograph  of  Schwei- 
nitz  and  Torrey  laid  the  foundation  and  insured  the  popular- 
ity of  the  study  of  Sedges  in  this  country.  But  while  the 
latter  systematic  arrangement  was  published  as  a  whole  in 
1825,  Dr.  Dewey's,  carried  on  without  particular  order,  ex- 
tended through  a  lifetime,  and  represents  both  the  earlier  and 
the  later  knowledge.  What  is  needed  to  render  these  stores 
of  observation  and  their  permanent  results  most  available,  is 
a  systematic  digest  or  synopsis,  something  like  that  which  the 
author  contributed  to  Wood's  Botany,  in  the  article  Carex, 
but  with  all  the  more  important  references.  Hopes  were 
entertained  that  he  might  be  able  to  crown  his  life's  work 
in  this  way.  But  at  past  fourscore  and  ten  this  could  not 
be  expected.  Beyond  this  favorite  genus,  Professor  Dewey's 
botanical  writings  were  few  ;  the  most  considerable  was  his 
"  History  of  the  Herbaceous  Plants  of  Massachusetts,"  pub- 
lished under  the  authority  of  the  State,  being  the  companion 
volume  to  the  better  known  "  Report  on  the  Trees  and  Shrubs," 
by  Mr.  Emerson.  Botany  was  one  of  the  occupations  of  Pro- 
fessor Dewey's  leisure  hours  ;  his  long  life  was  mainly  de- 
voted to  education.  Turning  his  attention  to  a  special  yet 
almost  inexhaustible  subject,  however,  and  laboring  persever- 
ingly  and  faithfully,  although  under  many  disadvantages,  he 
has  permanently  and  honorably  impressed  his  name  upon  the 
science  in  which  the  Calif ornian  Umbelliferous  genus  Deweya 
records  his  services.  He  was  an  excellent,  simple-hearted, 
devout  man,  a  fine  specimen  of  the  western  New  Englander 
of  the  old   school. 

The  lovers  of  Carex,  so  numerous  in  this  country,  will 
cherish  the  memory  of  these  two  venerable  men,  Sartwell  and 
Dewey,  long  associated  in  congenial  pursuits,  and  gone  to 
their  rest  together.  May  the  turf  of  the  Sedges  they  loved, 
and  which  cover  or  ought  to  cover  the  low  mounds  under 
which  their  dust  reposes,  keep  them  perennially  green,  and 
adorn  them  each  returning  spring  with  their  sober  blossoms ! 


GEORGE  A.  WALKER-ARNOTT.1 

George  A.  Walker-Arnott,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the 
University  at  Glasgow,  died  on  the  17th  of  June  last,  in 
the  seventieth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  born  in  Edinburgh, 
February  6,  1799,  educated  at  the  celebrated  high  school  of 
that  city,  and  at  the  university,  where  he  took  high  rank  as  a 
scholar,  especially  in  the  mathematics,  —  publishing  two 
papers  in  Tilloch's  "Philosophical  Magazine"  in  1817  and 
1818,  while  yet  a  student  in  arts,  —  and  then,  turning  to  law 
studies,  he  was  called  to  the  bar  as  a  member  of  the  faculty  of 
advocates  in  the  year  1821.  He  hardly  entered,  however,  upon 
the  duties  of  his  profession,  his  taste  for  natural  history  hav- 
ing been  early  developed  under  the  lectures  of  Professor  Jame- 
son and  of  Mr.  Stewart,  —  the  latter  a  well-known  teacher  of 
botany  at  that  time,  and  his  patrimonial  estate  of  Arlary  in 
Kinros-shire  suffering  for  his  support,  so  that  he  could  devote 
himself  to  botany,  as  he  did,  with  unsurpassed  ardor  and 
success.  His  earliest  botanical  paper,  upon  some  Brazilian 
Mosses,  was  written  in  France,  and  published  in  a  journal 
at  Paris  in  1823.  In  1826  and  1827  he  contributed  to  the 
"Edinburgh  New  Philosophical  Journal"  a  lively  narrative 
of  a  botanical  tour  to  the  south  of  France  and  the  Pyrenees. 
He  resided  for  some  time  at  Montpellier  and  in  Paris,  examin- 
ing the  principal  herbaria  there,  also  that  of  De  Candolle 
at  Geneva,  and  in  1828  the  herbaria  at  St.  Petersburg.  In 
1831  he  married  and  established  himself  with  his  collections 
at  Arlary,  where  he  resided  until,  in  1845,  he  accepted  the 
professorship  of  botany  in  the  University  of  Glasgow.  It  was 
during  these  fourteen  years  that  the  vast  amount  of  scientific 
work  he  was  able  to  accomplish  was  mainly  done,  lb'  wrote 
the  article  "  Botany  "  in  the  seventh  edition  of  the  "  Encyclo- 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  xlvii.  1 40.     (1S(30.) 


348  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

pedia  Britannica,"  —  the  best  treatise  of  the  kind  of  its  day  in 
the  English  language,  and  one  of  the  most  influential.  In 
conjunction  with  his  early  friend,  Sir  William  Hooker,  he 
wrote  the  "  Contributions  to  the  Flora  of  South  America," 
etc.,  which  form  a  long  series  of  articles  in  the  "  Botanical 
Miscellany,"  "Journal  of  Botany,"  and  other  similar  periodi- 
cal or  serial  publications  edited  by  Sir  William.  He  took  a 
similar  part  in  the  k'  Botany  of  Beechey's  Voyage  "  ;  in  con- 
nection with  Dr.  Wight  he  brought  out  the  first  volume  of  the 
"  Prodromus  Florae  Peninsula?  India?  Orientalis  "  ;  and  made 
numerous  contributions  to  various  periodicals.  Up  to  1845 
or  somewhat  later  Dr.  Arnott  was  one  of  the  foremost  bota- 
nists of  the  time,  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  sagacious,  versed 
alike  in  European  and  exotic  botany.  But  upon  assuming  the 
duties  of  his  chair  at  Glasgow  he  appears  soon  to  have  aban- 
doned the  field  in  which  he  had  won  the  highest  honors,  and 
in  which  much  more  was  justly  expected.  He  assumed,  how- 
ever, the  joint  authorship  of  Hooker's  "  British  Flora,"  tak- 
ing, we  believe,  the  whole  charge  and  responsibility  of  the  later 
editions.  As  he  began  with  Mosses,  so  for  the  last  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  of  his  life  he  devoted  himself  principally  to  the 
Diatomacece,  bringing  to  their  investigation  all  the  ardor  of 
his  nature  and  the  keenest  powers  of  observation,  combined 
with  indomitable  patience  and  unwearied  care.  So  that  he 
became  in  this  department  of  microscopical  research  one  of 
the  highest  authorities,  and  amassed  one  of  the  richest  collec- 
tions extant.  As  a  professor  he  was  greatly  esteemed  and 
respected,  although  he  may  be  thought  to  have  come  almost 
too  late  in  life  to  the  professor's  chair.  In  his  later  years  he 
was  much  withdrawn  from  general  botanical  intercourse  ;  but 
his  surviving  correspondents  and  friends  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean  cherish  very  pleasant  memories  of  him. 


NATHANIEL  BAGSHAW   WARD.1 

Nathaniel  Bagshaw  Ward,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  and  Lin- 
nsean  societies,  after  whom,  as  its  inventor,  the  Wardian  case 
is  named,  died  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy-seven  years,  on  the  4th 
of  June  last.  He  was  born  in  the  east  end  of  London,  where 
his  father  was  a  medical  practitioner  of  repute,  and  where  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  busy  and  most  useful  life  he  laboriously 
devoted  himself  to  the  same  profession.  About  twenty  years 
ago  he  exchanged  the  smoke-charged  atmosphere  and  dingy 
dwellings  of  Wellclose  Square  for  the  pleasant  and  airy 
suburb  of  Clapham  Rise,  but  still  actively  engaged  almost  to 
the  last  in  professional  practice,  and  in  his  various  official 
duties,  mainly  in  connection  with  the  Apothecaries  Society, 
filling  in  succession  nearly  all  its  important  offices.  The  ren- 
ovation and  even  the  maintenance  of  the  celebrated  Apothe- 
caries Garden  at  Chelsea  —  the  oldest  botanical  establishment 
of  the  country  —  is  probably  mainly  due  to  his  counsels  and 
exertions.  We  cannot  here  enter  into  the  interesting  history 
of  the  now  familiar  Wardian  case,  —  a  discovery  which  grew 
out  of  Mr.  Ward's  persistent  endeavors  to  cultivate  the  plants 
he  delighted  in  under  the  smoke  and  soot  of  the  dingiest  part 
of  London,  and  which  resulted  in  providing  for  the  poor  as 
well  as  the  rich  denizens  of  the  smoky  towns  of  the  old  world 
the  inexpensive  but  invaluable  luxury  or  comfort  of  being  sur- 
rounded at  all  seasons  with  growing  plants  and  fresh  flowers. 
Nor  is  the  invention  less  applicable  to  house-culture,  especially 
of  Ferns,  under  the  clearer  and  purer  air  of  our  own  country 
rendered  arid  by  the  cold  of  winter,  as  hundreds  could  testify 
who  have  enjoyed  the  benefit,  perhaps  without  knowing  even 
the  name  of  their  benefactor.  Equally  important  is  the  appli- 
cation of  the  Wardian  case  to  the  conveyance  of  living  plants 
between  distant  countries.     The  writer  well  remembers   the 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  2  ser.,  \lvii.  111.      |  1 SG9. ) 


350  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

first  case  of  growing  plants  sent  to  New  York  thirty-five  years 
ago,  which  arrived  as  fresh  and  healthy  as  when  they  left 
London ;  and  the  transmission  was  quite  successful  between 
England  and  Australia,  when  the  voyage,  confined  to  sailing- 
ships,  was  far  longer  than  now.  So  useful  has  this  contriv- 
ance proved  to  be  in  this  respect,  that  the  director  of  Kew 
Gardens  "  feels  safe  in  saying  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
most  valuable  economic  and  other  tropical  plants  now  culti- 
vated in  England  would,  but  for  these  cases,  not  yet  have 
been  introduced."  The  earliest  published  account  of  the  War- 
dian  case  was  given  by  Mr.  Ward  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to 
his  near  friend,  the  late  Sir  William  Hooker,  and  was  printed 
in  the  "  Companion  to  the  Botanical  Magazine  "  for  May, 
1836.  His  volume  "On  the  Growth  of  Plants  in  Closely 
Glazed  Cases  "  appeared  in  the  year  1842,  and  a  second  edi- 
tion, considerably  enlarged  and  suitably  illustrated,  was  pub- 
lished a  few  years  later.  These  were,  we  believe,  Mr.  Ward's 
only  scientific  publications,  excepting  reports  of  communica- 
tions to  various  societies  with  which  he  was  connected,  several 
of  them  relating  to  a  subject  near  to  his  heart:  the  improve- 
ment of  the  dwellings  of  the  poor  in  England,  and  the  amel- 
ioration, in  other  respects,  of  their  hard  condition.  A  most 
enthusiastic  and,  in  some  departments,  a  learned  botanist,  his 
contributions  to  his  favorite  avocation  were  not  in  the  form  of 
authorship,  to  which  he  seemed  averse :  a  man  "  given  to  hos- 
pitality "  indeed,  but  as  unpretending  as  it  was  cordial  and 
unlimited.  The  coming  generation  will  hardly  appreciate  the 
extent  of  the  influence  he  exerted  and  the  strength  of  the 
attachment  he  inspired  so  widely  among  the  cultivators  of 
natural  science,  nor  understand,  perhaps,  how  it  could  be 
said  of  him,  and  without  exaggeration,  that  "  for  very  many 
years  his  hospitable  house,  first  in  Wellclose  Square,  and  lat- 
terly at  Clapham  Rise,  was  the  most  frequented  metropolitan 
resort  of  naturalists  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe  of  any 
since  Sir  Joseph  Banks'  day."  But  while  any  survive  of  those 
who  have  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  him  personally,  or  in 
the  friendly  correspondence  he  delighted  in,  Mr.  Ward  will 
be  remembered  as  "  one  of  the  gentlest,  kindest,  and  purest," 
and  in  the  highest  sense  one  of  the  best  of  men. 


MOSES  ASHLEY   CURTIS.1 

Moses  Ashley  Curtis  was  born  in  Stockbridge,  Massa 
chusetts,  on  the  lltli  of  May,  1808.  His  father  was  the  Rev 
Jared  Curtis,  of  Stockbridge,  afterward  for  many  years  chap 
lain  of  the  state  prison  at  Charlestown.  His  mother  was  \ 
daughter  of  General  Moses  Ashley.  He  was  fitted  for  col- 
lege chiefly  under  his  father's  tuition,  and  was  graduated  at 
Williams  in  the  class  of  1827.  Three  years  afterward  he 
went  to  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  as  a  tutor  in  the  family 
of  Governor  Dudley,  while  at  the  same  time  he  studied  divin- 
ity. There  he  resided  until  the  year  1841,  with  the  exception 
of  a  year  and  a  half  passed  with  his  father  in  Charlestown. 
In  the  autumn  of  1834  he  married  Miss  De  Rosset,  of  Wil- 
mington, who  survives  him.  He  took  holy  orders  at  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  in  the  summer  of  1835  ;  became  rector  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  at  Hillsborough,  North  Carolina, 
in  1841,  and  fulfilled  the  duties  of  this  station  for  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life,  with  the  exception  of  ten  years,  from  1847 
to  1857,  during  which  he  had  the  pastoral  charge  of  a  parish 
at  Society  Hill,  South  Carolina.  The  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  was  conferred  on  him  by  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  at  Chapel  Hill.  His  health  for  a  few  years  past 
was  sensibly  impaired  ;  but  he  was  able  to  perform  his  pro- 
fessional duties,  and,  in  a  measure,  to  prosecute  his  scientific 
studies,  until  the  10th  of  April  last,  when  he  died  suddenly, 
probably  of  heart-disease. 

Dr.  Curtis's  attention  must  have  early  been  attracted  to 
botany,  and  his  predilection  fixed  by  his  residence  at  Wil- 
mington, one  of  the  richest  and  most  remarkable  botanical 
stations  in  the  United  States.  For  it  was  in  the  year  1843, 
after  only  three  years'  residence  there,  that  he  communicated 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  v.  391.     (1873.) 


352  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

to  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  his  first  botanical 
work,  namely,  his  "  Enumeration  of  Plants  growing  spon- 
taneously around  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  with  remarks 
on  some  New  and  Obscure  Species."  This  was  printed  in  the 
first  volume  and  second  number  of  that  society's  Journal ; 
but  the  original  impression  having  been  mainly  destroyed  by 
fire,  important  additions  and  emendations  were  made  in  the 
subsequent  reprint.  The  author's  powers  of  observation  and 
aptitude  for  research  are  well  shown  in  this  publication,  and 
it  is  one  of  the  first  of  the  kind  in  this  country  in  which  the 
names  are  accented.  In  his  note  upon  the  structure  of  Dionaea, 
or  Venus's  Fly-trap,  —  a  plant  found  only  in  the  district 
around  Wilmington,  —  Dr.  Curtis  corrected  the  account  of 
the  mode  of  its  wonderful  action  which  had  prevailed  since 
the  time  of  Linnaeus,  and  confirmed  the  statement  and  infer- 
ences of  the  first  scientific  describer,  Ellis,  namely,  that  this 
plant  not  only  captures  insects,  but  consumes  them,  envelop- 
ing them  in  a  mucilaginous  fluid  which  appears  to  act  as  a 
solvent.  Extending  his  botanical  observations  to  the  western 
borders  of  his  adopted  State,  Dr.  Curtis  was  among  the  first 
to  retrace  the  steps  and  rediscover  the  plants  found  and  pub- 
lished by  the  elder  Michaux,  in  the  higher  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains. But  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  his  scientific  studies 
were  mainly  given  to  mycology,  in  which  he  became  a  profi- 
cient, and  the  highest  American  authority.  His  papers  upon 
Fungi,  some  of  which  are  large,  and  all  are  important,  were 
mainly  published  by  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and 
by  the  Linnagan  Society  of  London.  Several  of  them  are  the 
joint  productions  of  Dr.  Curtis  and  the  able  English  mycolo- 
gist Mr.  Berkley. 

His  other  published  writings  mainly  are  "  A  Commentary 
on  the  Natural  History  of  Dr.  Hawks's  '  History  of  North 
Carolina,'  "  —  a  good  specimen  of  his  appreciation  of  exact 
research  and  of  sharpness  of  wit  without  acerbity ;  two  papers 
in  Silliman's  Journal  on  "  New  and  Rare  Plants  of  the  Caro- 
linas  "  ;  and  the  botanical  portion  of  the  "  Geological  and  Nat- 
ural History  Survey  of  North  Carolina,"  in  two  parts  ;  —  the 
first  a  popular  account  of  the  trees  and  shrubs,  issued  in 


MOSES   ASHLEY  CURTIS.  353 

1860  ;  the  other,  a  catalogue  of  all  the  plants  of  the  State,  in 
1867.  This  includes  the  lower  Cryptogamia,  especially  the 
Fungi,  of  which  he  enumerates  almost  2400  species,  while  the 
phaenogamous  plants  are  less  than  1900.  All  our  associate's 
work  was  marked  by  ability  and  conscientiousness.  With  a 
just  appreciation  both  of  the  needs  of  the  science  and  of  what 
he  could  best  do  under  the  circumstances,  when  he  had  ex- 
hausted the  limited  field  in  Phaenogamous  botany  within  his 
reach,  he  entered  upon  the  inexhaustible  ground  of  mycology, 
which  had  been  neglected  in  this  country  since  the  time  of 
Schweinitz.  In  this  difficult  department  he  investigated  and 
published  a  large  number  of  new  species,  as  well  as  determined 
the  old  ones,  and  amassed  an  ample  collection,  the  preservation 
of  which  is  most  important,  comprising  as  it  does  the  speci- 
mens, drawings,  and  original  notes  which  are  to  authenticate 
his  work.  By  his  unremitting  and  well-directed  labors,  filling 
the  intervals  of  an  honored  and  faithful  professional  life,  he 
has  richly  earned  the  gratitude  of  the  present  and  ensuing 
generations  of  botanists.  Several  years  ago  he  prepared 
drawings  of  the  edible  Fungi  of  the  country,  with  a  view  to 
making  them  better  known  in  an  accessible  and  popular  pub- 
lication ;  but  he  was  unable  to  find  a  publisher.  He  was  much 
impressed  with  their  importance  as  a  source  of  food.  During 
the  hardships  of  the  Rebellion  he  turned  his  knowledge  of 
them  to  useful  account  for  his  family  and  neighborhood ;  and 
he  declared  that  he  could  have  supported  a  regiment  upon 
excellent  and  delicious  food  which  was  wasting  in  the  fields 
and  woods  around  him. 


HUGO  VON  MOHL.1 

Hugo  VON  Mohl,  the  acknowledged  chief  of  the  vegetable 
anatomists  of  this  generation,  died  on  the  first  day  of  April 
last.  He  was  born  at  Stuttgart,  April  8,  1805,  the  youngest 
of  four  brothers  who  all  became  men  of  mark  in  political  and 
scientific  life :  Julius  the  orientalist  and  Hugo  the  botanist 
being  the  most  distinguished.  The  latter  was  educated  at  the 
Stuttgart  Gymnasium  and  Tubingen  University,  where  he 
studied  medicine  as  well  as  natural  history  and  physics.  His 
first  publication,  while  a  student,  in  the  year  1827,  was  his 
"  Essay  on  the  Structure  and  Coiling  of  Tendrils  and  Twi- 
ners," written  in  response  to  a  prize-question  offered  by  the 
Tubingen  Medical  Faculty.  In  it  he  divined  the  real  nature 
of  the  movements  which  coiling  stems  and  tendrils  execute,  as 
has  recently  been  clearly  made  out.  In  the  following  year 
appeared  his  inaugural  dissertation  on  the  "  Pores  of  the  Cel- 
lular Tissue  of  Plants,"  in  which  his  later  views  and  discoveries, 
respecting  the  structure,  growth,  and  component  parts  of  cells, 
as  subsequently  developed,  are  already  foreshadowed.  About 
this  time  his  choice  was  made  for  a  scientific  rather  than  a 
medical  career  ;  and  he  went  to  Munich  to  prosecute  more 
advantageously  his  favorite  studies.  Here  the  late  Yon  Mar- 
tius  and  Zuccarni  were  his  botanical  masters,  and  Agassiz, 
Karl  Schimper,  Braun,  and  Engelmann  his  fellow-students. 
Here  he  made  those  researches  upon  the  anatomy  of  Ferns, 
Cycads,  and  especially  of  Palms,  —  the  latter  a  most  important 
contribution  to  Martius's  great  work  upon  Palms,  the  former 
also  contributed  to  another  work  by  Martius,  —  which  first 
displayed  his  remarkable  talents  for  histological  investigation, 
to  which  his  subsequent  scientific  life  was  mainly  devoted. 
His  merits  were  promptly  recognized  by  a  call  to  the  Imperial 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  v.  393.      (1873.) 


HUGO    VON  MOHL.  355 

Botanic  Garden  of  St.  Petersburg,  as  assistant  to  its  director, 
Dr.  Fischer,  and  to  the  chair  of  physiology  in  the  Academy  of 
Berne.  He  accepted  the  latter  in  1832,  and  occupied  it  until 
1835.  Then,  upon  the  death  of  Schubler,  he  returned  to 
Tubingen,  accepted  the  professorship  of  botany  in  its  high 
school,  in  which  chair  and  in  that  of  Tubingen  the  rest  of 
his  life  was  passed.  Invitations  to  more  prominent  and  lucra- 
tive positions,  as,  for  example,  to  the  botanical  chair  at  Berlin 
University,  when  vacated  by  the  death  of  the  veteran  Link, 
were  unhesitatingly  declined.  Although  he  published  numer- 
ous (about  ninety)  special  papers  or  articles,  most  of  them 
important  and  timely,  and  some  of  great  pith  and  moment, 
he  resolutely  declined  to  bring  out  any  general  work.  His 
'*  Mikrographie  "  (1846)  and  his  "  Principles  of  the  Anatomy 
and  Physiology  of  the  Vegetable  Cell  "  are  his  only  writings 
which  may  claim  to  be  such.  The  latter,  an  admirable  and 
still  invaluable  treatise,  appeared  /is  an  article  in  Rudolf 
Wagner's  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Physiology,"  but  is  best  known  to 
English  readers  in  its  separate  form,  in  a  translation  made  by 
the  late  Professor  Henfrey,  with  the  author's  sanction,  issued 
by  Van  Voorst  in  1852.  A  year  or  two  later  it  was  for  a 
time  understood,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  botanists,  that 
Mohl  had  agreed  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  production 
of  a  general  manual  of  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  plants ; 
but  his  promise  was  soon  withdrawn.  For  thirty  years  he  was 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Botanische  Zeitung"  ;  but  the  edi- 
torial labor  must  have  devolved  mainly  upon  Schlechtendal 
and  his  successor,  although  occasional  articles  from  Mold's 
pen  appeared  as  late  as  the  year  1871.  During  that  year 
his  health  became  seriously  impaired  ;  yet  as  the  new  year 
advanced,  apprehension  disappeared.  Upon  Easter  Monday 
he  was  apparently  well,  and  so  retired  to  nightly  rest;  in  the 
morning  he  was  found  to  have  died  in  sleep. 


ROBERT  WIGHT.1 

Robert  Wight,  M.  D.,  died  at  his  residence,  near  Read- 
ing, England,  May  26,  1872,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six  years. 
He  was  born  in  East  Lothian,  Scotland,  educated  at  the  Edin- 
burgh High  School,  and  professionally  at  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity, where  he  took  his  medical  degree  in  1816.  He  went  to 
India,  the  field  of  his  botanical  career  and  most  useful  ad- 
ministrative activity  for  forty  years,  in  1819.  He  was  first 
assistant  surgeon  and  afterward  full  surgeon  of  a  native  regi- 
ment in  the  East  India  Company's  service,  but  was  soon  trans- 
ferred to  the  charge  of  tjie  Botanic  Garden  at  Madras,  and 
finally  to  that  of  the  important  cotton  plantations  at  Coimba- 
toor.  His  earliest  botanical  contributions  occupy  a  conspicu- 
ous place  in  Hooker's  "  Botanical  Miscellany,"  commencing 
in  1830,  and  in  the  continuation  of  that  work  under  other 
names  and  firms.  In  1834,  after  a  temporary  sojourn  in  his 
native  city,  appeared  the  first  volume  of  a  model  flora,  the 
"  Prodromus  Flora}  Peninsular  India}  Orientalis,"  by  Dr. 
Wight  and  Mr.  (afterwards  Professor)  Arnott,  of  which  their 
successors  in  the  field  remarked,  that  it  is  the  most  able  and 
valuable  contribution  to  Indian  botany  which  has  ever  ap- 
peared, and  one  which  has  few  rivals  in  the  whole  domain  of 
botanical  literature.  Dr.  Wight  returned  to  India  immedi- 
ately after  the  publication  of  this  initial  volume  of  the  work, 
which  was  never  continued.  In  India,  assisted  by  native  ar- 
tists whom  he  had  trained,  he  brought  out  two  quarto  volumes 
of  "  Illustrations  of  Indian  Botany,"  with  one  hundred  and 
eighty-two  colored  plates  ;  his  "  Spicilegium  Nielgherrense," 
of  similar  character ;  and  finally  his  "  Icones  Plantarum  India} 
Orientalis,"  in  six  volumes,  with  2101  uncolored  lithographic 
plates,  and  elaborate  analysis,  of  unequal  merit,  many  of  them 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  v.  395.     (1873.) 


ROBERT  WIGHT.  357 

truly  excellent,  but  all  wonderful,  under  the  circumstances  of 
their  production.  When  he  returned  to  England,  nearly 
twenty  years  ago,  his  productive  season,  as  it  proved,  was 
nearly  over.  But  he  distributed  his  collections  with  a  liberal 
hand,  as  indeed  he  had  always  done,  and  in  spite  of  a  fail- 
ing health  enjoyed  in  a  serene  and  happy  old  age  the  quiet 
country  residence  to  which  he  retired. 


FREDERIK  WELWITSCH.1 

Frederik  Welwitsch,  M.  D.,  died  in  London,  on  the 
20th  of  October  last,  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  his  age.  He 
was  a  native  of  Carinthia  ;  was  educated  at  Vienna ;  was  com- 
missioned by  the  Wiirtemberg  Unio  Itineraria  to  collect  the 
plants  of  the  Azores  and  Cape  Verde  Islands  ;  but  on  reach- 
ing Lisbon  and  finding  good  employment  there,  he  made 
Portugal  the  field  of  his  investigations,  until,  in  1850,  he  was 
sent  by  the  Portuguese  government  to  exjjlore  the  natural 
history  of  its  possessions  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  His 
exploration  of  Angola  and  Benguela  was  rewarded  by  the 
discovery  of  more  highly  curious  plants,  probably,  than  any 
other  that  has  been  undertaken  since  Australia  was  opened  to 
botanists ;  among  them,  and  strangest  of  all,  the  genus  which 
commemorates  the  discoverer,  Welwitschia  mirabilis,  which 
Dr.  Hooker,  who  described  and  illustrated  it,  does  "  not  hesi- 
tate to  consider  the  most  wonderful,  in  a  botanical  point  of 
view,  that  has  been  brought  to  light  during  the  present  cen- 
tury." Perhaps  the  limitation  in  the  latter  clause  of  the 
sentence  is  needless.  This  inhabits  a  most  arid  waste.  In 
another  district,  under  almost  opposite  conditions,  Welwitsch 
had  the  good  fortune  to  find  the  only  Cactaceous  plant  indig- 
enous out  of  America,  namely,  Rhijiscdis  Cassytha,  and  in  a 
lake  a  new  and  most  remote  habitat  of  our  Brasenia  peltata  ! 
In  his  "  Sertum  Angolense,"  a  splendid  memoir  published  by 
the  Linnsean  Society,  with  twenty-five  plates,  some  of  his  most 
interesting  discoveries  are  described  ;  but  the  still  unpublished 
portions  of  his  collections  must  furnish  most  important  con- 
tributions to  the  "  Flora  of  Tropical  Africa,"  now  in  progress 
under  the  orders  of  the  British  Colonial  department  and  the 
editorship  of  Professor  Oliver  of  Kew.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  they  are  to  be  more  fully  available  for  this  flora  than 
they  have  thus  far  been. 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  v.  396.     (1873.) 


JOHN  TORREY.1 

John  Torre y,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  died  at  New  York,  on  the 
10th  of  March,  1873,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age. 
He  has  long  been  the  chief  of  American  botanists,  and  was 
at  his  death  the  oldest,  with  the  exception  of  the  venerable 
ex-President  of  the  American  Academy  (Dr.  Bigelow),  who 
entered  the  botanical  field  several  years  earlier,  but  left  it  to 
gather  the  highest  honors  and  more  lucrative  rewards  of  the 
medical  profession,  about  the  time  when  Dr.  Torrey  deter- 
mined to  devote  his  life  to  scientific  pursuits. 

The  latter  was  of  an  old  New  England  stock,  being,  it  is 
thought,  a  descendant  of  William  Torrey,  who  emigrated 
from  Combe  St.  Nicholas,  near  Chard,  in  Somersetshire,  and 
settled  at  Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  about  the  year  1C40.2 

His  grandfather,  John  Torrey,  with  his  son  William,  re- 
moved from  Boston  to  Montreal  at  the  time  of  the  enforce- 

1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  ix.  k2&2.    (1873.) 

2  In  some  notes  furnished  by  a  member  of  the  family,  the  descent  is 
endeavored  to  be  traced  through  the  eldest  of  the  five  sons  who  survived 
their  parent,  namely,  Samuel,  who  came  with  him  from  England,  became 
a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  had  the  unprecedented  honor  of  preaching 
three  election  sermons  (in  1G74,  1G83,  and  1G95),  as  well  as  of  having 
three  times  declined  the  presidency  of  Harvard  College  (after  Hoar,  after 
Oakes,  and  after  Rogers).  Although  educated  at  the  college,  he  was  not 
a  graduate,  because  he  left  it  in  1650,  after  three  years'  residence,  just 
when  the  term  for  the  A.  B.  degree  was  lengthened  to  four  years.  The 
tradition  has  it,  that,  "  at  the  prayer-meetings  of  the  students,  he  was 
generally  invited  to  make  the  concluding  prayer,"  —  for  which  an  obvious 
reason  suggests  itself,  —  for,  "  such  was  his  devotion  of  spirit  that,  after 
praying  for  two  hours,  the  regret  was  that  he  did  not  continue  longer." 
Students  of  the  present  day  are  probably  less  exacting. 

The  desire  to  claim  a  descent  through  so  eminent  a  member  of  the 
family  is  natural.  But  our  late  venerable  associate,  Mr.  Savage,  in  his 
Dictionary  of  early  New  England  families,  states  that  he  could  not  as- 
certain that  Samuel  had  any  children. 


360  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

ment  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill.  But  neither  of  them  was  dis- 
posed to  be  a  refugee.  For  the  son,  then  a  lad  of  seventeen 
years,  ran  away  from  Canada  to  New  York,  joined  his  uncle, 
Joseph  Torrey,  a  major  of  one  of  the  two  light  infantry  regi- 
ments of  regulars  (called  Congress's  Own)  which  were  raised 
in  that  city ;  was  made  an  ensign,  and  was  in  the  rearguard 
of  his  regiment  on  the  retreat  to  White  Plains ;  served  in  it 
throughout  the  war  with  honor,  and  until  at  the  close  he  re- 
entered the  city  upon  Evacuation  Day,  when  he  retired  with 
the  rank  of  captain.  Moreover,  the  father  soon  followed  the 
son,  and  became  quartermaster  of  the  regiment.  Captain 
Torrey,  in  1791,  married  Margaret  Nichols,  of  New  York. 

The  subject  of  this  biographical  notice  was  the  second  of 
the  issue  of  this  marriage,  and  the  oldest  child  who  survived 
to  manhood.  He  was  born  in  New  York,  on  the  15th  of  Au- 
gust, 1796.  He  received  such  education  only  as  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  city  then  afforded,  and  was  also  sent  for 
a  year  to  a  school  in  Boston.  When  he  was  fifteen  or  sixteen 
years  old  his  father  was  appointed  fiscal  agent  of  the  state 
prison  at  Greenwich,  then  a  suburban  village,  to  which  the 
family  removed. 

At  this  early  age  he  chanced  to  attract  the  attention  of 
Amos  Eaton,  who  soon  afterwards  became  a  well-known 
pioneer  of  natural  science,  and  with  whom  it  may  be  said  that 
popular  instruction  in  natural  history  in  this  country  began. 
He  taught  young  Torrey  the  structure  of  flowers  and  the  rudi- 
ments of  botany,  and  thus  awakened  a  taste  and  kindled  a 
zeal  which  were  extinguished  only  with  his  pupil's  life.  This 
fondness  soon  extended  to  mineralogy  and  chemistry,  and 
probably  determined  the  choice  of  a  profession.  In  the  year 
1815,  Torrey  began  the  study  of  medicine  in  the  office  of  the 
eminent  Dr.  Wright  Post,  and  in  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  in  which  the  then  famous  Dr.  Mitchill  and  Dr. 
Hosack  were  professors  of  scientific  repute ;  he  took  his  medi- 
cal degree  in  1818  ;  opened  an  office  in  his  native  city,  and 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine  with  moderate  success, 
turning  the  while  his  abundant  leisure  to  scientific  pursuits, 
especially  to  botany.     In  1817,  while  yet  a  medical  student, 


JOHN  TORREY.  361 

he  reported  to  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  —  of  which 
he  was  one  of  the  founders  —  his  "Catalogue  of  the  Plants 
growing  spontaneously  within  Thirty  Miles  of  the  City  of 
New  York,"  which  was  published  two  years  later  ;  and  he  was 
already,  or  very  soon  after,  in  correspondence  with  Kurt 
Sprengel  and  Sir  James  Edward  Smith  abroad,  as  well  as 
with  Elliott,  Nuttall,  Schweinitz,  and  other  American  bota- 
nists. Two  mineralogical  articles  were  contributed  by  him  to 
the  very  first  volume  of  the  "  American  Journal  of  Science 
and  Arts  "  (1818-1819),  and  several  others  appeared  a  few 
years  later,  in  this  and  in  other  journals. 

Elliott's  "  Sketch  of  the  Botany  of  South  Carolina  and  Geor- 
gia "  was  at  this  time  in  course  of  publication,  and  Dr.  Torrey 
planned  a  counterpart  systematic  work  upon  the  botany  of 
the  northern  States.  The  result  of  this  was  his  "  Flora  of 
the  Northern  and  Middle  Sections  of  the  United  States,"  i.  e., 
north  of  Virginia,  —  which  was  issued  in  parts,  and  the  first 
volume  concluded  in  the  summer  of  1824.  In  this  work  Dr. 
Torrey  first  developed  his  remarkable  aptitude  for  descriptive 
botany,  and  for  the  kind  of  investigation  and  discrimination, 
the  tact  and  acumen,  which  it  calls  for.  Only  those  few  — 
now,  alas,  very  few  —  surviving  botanists  who  used  this  book 
through  the  following  years  can  at  all  appreciate  its  value  and 
influence.  It  was  the  fruit  of  those  few  but  precious  years 
which,  seasoned  with  pecuniary  privation,  are  in  this  country 
not  rarely  vouchsafed  to  an  investigator,  in  which  to  prove 
his  quality  before  he  is  haply  overwhelmed  with  professional 
or  professorial  labors  and  duties. 

In  1824,  the  year, in  which  the  first  volume  (or  nearly  half) 
of  his  Flora  was  published,  he  married  Miss  Eliza  Robin- 
son Shaw,  of  New  York,  and  was  established  at  West  Point, 
having  been  chosen  professor  of  chemistry,  mineralogy,  and 
geology  in  the  United  States  Military  Academy.  Three  years 
later  he  exchanged  this  chair  for  that  of  chemistry  and  bot- 
any (practically  that  of  chemistry  only,  for  botany  had  al- 
ready been  allowed  to  fall  out  of  the  medical  curriculum  in 
this  country)  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  New 
York,  then  in  Barclay  Street.     The  Flora  of  the  Northern 


362  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

States  was  never  carried  further  ;  although  a  Compendium,  a 
pocket  volume  for  the  field,  containing  brief  characters  of 
the  species  which  were  to  have  been  described  in  the  second 
volume,  along  with  an  abridgment  of  the  contents  of  the  first, 
was  issued  in  1826.  Moreover,  long  before  Dr.  Torrey  could 
find  time  to  go  on  with  the  work,  he  foresaw  that  the  natural 
system  was  not  much  longer  to  remain,  here  and  in  England, 
an  esoteric  doctrine,  confined  to  profound  botanists,  but  was 
destined  to  come  into  general  use  and  to  change  the  character 
of  botanical  instruction.  He  was  himself  the  first  to  aj)ply  it 
in  this  country  in  any  considerable  publication. 

The  opportunity  for  this,  and  for  extending  his  investiga- 
tions to  the  Great  Plains  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  their 
western  boundary,  was  furnished  by  the  collections  placed  in 
Dr.  Torrey 's  hands  by  Dr.  Edwin  James,  the  botanist  of 
Major  Long's  expedition  in  1820.  This  expedition  skirted 
the  Rocky  Mountains  belonging  to  what  is  now  called  Colo- 
rado Territory,  where  Dr.  James,  first  and  alone,  reached  the 
charming  alpine  vegetation,  scaling  one  of  the  very  highest 
summits,  which  from  that  time  and  for  many  years  afterward 
was  appropriately  named  James's  Peak ;  although  it  is  now 
called  Pike's  Peak,  in  honor  of  General  Pike,  who  long  be- 
fore had  probably  seen,  but  had  not  reached  it. 

As  early  as  the  year  1823,  Dr.  Torrey  communicated  to  the 
Lyceum  of  Natural  History  descriptions  of  some  new  species 
of  James's  collection,  and  in  1826  an  extended  account  of  all 
the  plants  collected,  arranged  under  their  natural  orders. 
This  is  the  earliest  treatise  of  the  sort  in  this  country,  ar- 
ranged upon  the  natural  system  ;  and  with  it  begins  the  his- 
tory of  the  botany  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  if  we  except  a 
few  plants  collected  early  in  the  century  by  Lewis  and  Clark, 
where  they  crossed  them  many  degrees  farther  north,  and 
which  are  recorded  in  Pursh's  Flora.  The  next  step  in  the 
direction  he  was  aiming  was  made  in  the  year  1831,  when  he 
superintended  an  American  reprint  of  the  first  edition  of 
Lindley's  "  Introduction  to  the  Natural  System  of  Botany," 
and  appended  a  catalogue  of  the  North  American  genera 
arranged  according  to  it. 


JOHN  TORRE Y.  3o'3 


Dr.  Torrey  took  an  early  and  prominent  part  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  United  States  species  of  the  vast  genus  Carex, 
which  has  ever  since  been  a  favorite  study  in  this  country. 
His    friend,   Von    Schweinitz,   of   Bethlehem,    Pennsylvania, 
placed  in  his  hands  and  desired  him  to  edit,  during  the  au- 
thor's absence  in  Europe,  his  "Monograph  of  North  Amer- 
ican Carices."     It  was  published  in  the  "  Annals  of  the  New 
York  Lyceum,"  in  1825,  much  extended,  indeed  almost  wholly 
rewritten,  and  so  much  to   Schweinitz's  satisfaction  that  he 
insisted  that  this  classical  monograph  "  should  be  considered 
and  quoted  in  all  respects  as  the  joint  production  of  Dr.  Tor- 
rey and  himself."     Ten  or  eleven  years  later,  in  the  succeed- 
ing   volume  of  the  "  Annals    of    the    New    York    Lyceum," 
appeared    Dr.   Torrey's    elaborate    Monograph  of  the    other 
North  American    Cyperacem,  with  an  appended  revision   of 
the  Carices,  which  meanwhile  had  been  immensely  increased 
by  the  collections  of  Richardson,  Drummond,  etc.,  in  British 
and  arctic  America.     A  full  set  of  these  was  consigned  to  his 
hands  for  study  (along  with  other  important  collections),  by 
his  friend  Sir  William  Hooker,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  visit 
which  he  made  to  Europe  in  1833.     But  Dr.  Torrey  gener- 
ously turned  over  the  Carices  to  the  late  Professor  Dewey, 
whose  rival  Cartography  is  scattered  through  forty  or  fifty 
volumes  of  the  "  American  Journal  of   Science  and  Arts     ; 
and  so  had  only  to  sum  up  the  results  in  this  regard,  and  add 
a  few  southern  species  at  the  close  of  his  own  monograph  ot 

the  order. 

About  this  time,  namely,  in  the  year  183G,  upon  the  organi- 
zation of  a  geological  survey  of  the  State  of  New  York  upon 
an  extensive  plan,  Dr.  Torrey  was  appointed  botanist,  and 
was  required  to  prepare  a  Flora  of  the  State.  A  laborious 
undertaking  it  proved  to  be,  involving  a  heavy  sacrifice  ot 
time,  and  postponing  the  realization  of  long-chenshed  plans. 
But  in  1843,  after  much  discouragement,  tin--  blora  oi  the 
State  of  New  York,"  the  largest  if  by  no  means  the  mostim. 
portant  of  Dr.  Torrey's  works,  was  completed  and  published, 
in  two  large  quarto  volumes,  with  one  hundred  and  sixty-one 
plates.     No  other  State  of  the  Union  has  produced  a  1  lora  to 


364  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

compare  with  this.  The  only  thing  to  be  regretted  is  that  it 
interrupted,  at  a  critical  period,  the  prosecution  of  a  far  more 
important  work. 

Early  in  his  career  Dr.  Torrey  had  resolved  to  undertake  a 
general  Flora  of  North  America,  or  at  least  of  the  United 
States,  arranged  upon  the  natural  system,  and  had  asked  Mr. 
Nuttall  to  join  him,  who,  however,  did  not  consent.  At  that 
time,  when  little  was  known  of  the  regions  west  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  ground  to  be  covered  and  the  materials 
at  hand  were  of  comparatively  moderate  compass  ;  and  in  aid 
of  the  northern  part  of  it,  Sir  William  Hooker's  Flora  of 
British  America  —  founded  upon  the  rich  collections  of  the 
arctic  explorers,  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  intelligent 
officers,  and  of  such  hardy  and  enterprising  pioneers  as  Drurn- 
mond  and  Douglas  —  was  already  in  progress.  At  the  actual 
inception  of  the  enterprise,  the  botany  of  eastern  Texas  was 
opened  by  Drummond's  collections,  as  well  as  that  of  the  coast 
of  California  by  those  of  Douglas,  and  afterwards  those  of 
Nuttall.  As  they  clearly  belonged  to  our  own  phyto-geo- 
graphical  province,  Texas  and  California  were  accordingly 
annexed  botanically  before  they  became  so  politically. 

While  the  field  of  botanical  operations  was  thus  enlarging, 
the  time  which  could  be  devoted  to  it  was  restricted.  In  ad- 
dition to  his  chair  in  the  Medical  College,  Dr.  Torrey  had 
felt  obliged  to  accept  a  similar  one  at  Princeton  College, 
and  to  all  was  now  added,  as  we  have  seen,  the  onerous  post 
of  state  botanist.  It  was  in  the  year  1836  or  1837  that  he 
invited  the  writer  of  this  notice — then  pursuing  botanical 
studies  under  his  auspices  and  direction  —  to  become  his  asso- 
ciate in  the  Flora  of  North  America.  In  July  and  in  Octo- 
ber, 1838,  the  first  two  parts,  making  half  of  the  first  volume, 
were  published.  The  great  need  of  a  full  study  of  the  sources 
and  originals  of  the  earlier  published  species  was  now  ap- 
parent ;  so,  during  the  following  year,  his  associate  occupied 
himself  with  this  work  in  the  principal  herbaria  of  Europe. 
The  remaining  half  of  the  first  volume  appeared  in  June, 
1840.  The  first  part  of  the  second  volume  followed  in  1841; 
the  second,  in  the  spring  of   1842 ;  and  in  February,  1843, 


JOHN   TORRE Y.  365 

came  the  third  and  the  last ;  for  Dr.  Torrey's  associate  was 
now  also  immersed  in  professorial  duties  and  in  the  conse- 
quent preparation  of  the  works  and  collections  which  were 
necessary  to  their  prosecution. 

From  that  time  to  the  present  the  scientific  exploration  of 
the  vast  interior  of  the  continent  has  been  actively  carried  on, 
and  in  consequence  new  plants  have  poured  in  year  by  year 
in  such  numbers  as  to  overtask  the  powers  of  the  few  work- 
ing botanists  of  the  country,  nearly  all  of  them  weighted  with 
professional  engagements.  The  most  they  could  do  has  been 
to  put  collections  into  order  in  special  reports,  revise  here  and 
there  a  family  or  a  genus  monographic-ally,  and  incorporate 
new  materials  into  older  parts  of  the  fabric,  or  rough-hew 
them  for  portions  of  the  edifice  yet  to  be  constructed.  In  all 
this  Dr.  Torrey  took  a  prominent  part  down  almost  to  the  last 
days  of  his  life.  Passing  by  various  detached  and  scattered 
articles  upon  curious  new  genera  and  the  like,  but  not  forget- 
ting three  admirable  papers  published  in  the  "Smithsonian 
Contributions  to  Knowledge "  (Plantse  Fremontianae,  and 
those  on  Batis  and  Darlingtonia),  there  is  a  long  series  of 
important,  and  some  of  them  very  extensive,  contributions  to 
the  reports  of  government  explorations  of  the  western  coun- 
try,—  from  that  of  Long's  expedition,  already  referred  to,  in 
which  he  first  developed  his  powers,  through  those  of  Nicollet. 
Fremont,  and  Emory,  Sitgreaves,  Stansburv,  and  Marcy,  and 
those  contained  in  the  ampler  volumes  of  the  Surveys  for  Pa- 
cific Railroad  routes,  down  to  that  of  the  Mexican  Boundary, 
the  botany  of  which  forms  a  bulky  quarto  volume,  of  much 
interest.  Even  at  the  last,  when  he  rallied  transiently  from 
the  fatal  attack,  he  took  in  hand  the  manuscript  of  an  elabo- 
rate report  on  the  plants  collected  along  our  Pacific  coast  in 
Admiral  Wilkes's  celebrated  expedition,  which  he  had  pre- 
pared fully  a  dozen  years  ago,  and  which  (except  as  to  the 
plates)  remains  still  unpublished  through  no  fault  of  his. 
There  would  have  been  more  to  add,  perhaps  of  equal  impor- 
tance, if  Dr.  Torrey  had  been  as  ready  to  complete  and  pub- 
lish, as  he  was  to  investigate,  annotate,  and  sketch.  Through 
undue  diffidence  and  a  constant  desire  for  a  greater  perfec- 


366  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

tion  than  was  at  the  time  attainable,  many  interesting  obser- 
vations have  from  time  to  time  been  anticipated  by  other 
botanists. 

All  this  botanical  work,  it  may  be  observed,  has  reference 
to  the  Flora  of  North  America,  in  which,  it  was  hoped,  the 
diverse  and  separate  materials  and  component  parts,  which  he 
and  others  had  wrought  upon,  might  some  day  be  brought 
together  in  a  completed  system  of  American  botany. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  his  surviving  associate  of 
nearly  forty  years  will  be  able  to  complete  the  edifice.  To  do 
this  will  be  to  supply  the  most  pressing  want  of  the  science, 
and  to  raise  the  fittest  monument  to  Dr.  Torrey's  memory. 

In  the  estimate  of  Dr.  Torrey's  botanical  work,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  it  was  nearly  all  done  in  the  intervals  of  a 
busy  professional  life  ;  that  he  was  for  more  than  thirty  years 
an  active  and  distinguished  teacher,  mainly  of  chemistry,  and 
in  more  than  one  institution  at  the  same  time  ;  that  he  devoted 
much  time  and  remarkable  skill  and  judgment  to  the  practical 
applications  of  chemistry,  in  which  bis  counsels  were  constantly 
sought  and  too  generously  given ;  that  when,  in  1857,  he  ex- 
changed a  portion,  and  a  few  years  later  the  whole,  of  his  pro- 
fessional duties  for  the  office  of  United  States  Assayer,  these 
requisitions  upon  his  time  became  more  numerous  and  urgent.1 
In  addition  to  the  ordinary  duties  of  his  office,  which  he  fulfilled 
to  the  end  with  punctilious  faithfulness  (signing  the  last  of 
his  daily  reports  upon  the  very  day  of  his  death,  and  quietly 
telling  his  son  and  assistant  that  it  would  not  be  necessary  to 
bring  him  any  more),  he  was  frequently  requested  by  the  head 
of  the  Treasury  Department  to  undertake  the  solution  of  diffi- 
cult problems,  especially  those  relating  to  counterfeiting,  or  to 
take  charge  of  some  delicate  or  confidential  commission,  the  ut- 
most reliance  being  placed  upon  his  skill,  wisdom,  and  probity. 

1  It  ought  to  be  added,  that,  when  the  government  Assay  Office  at 
New  York  was  established,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  selected  Dr. 
Torrey  to  be  its  superintendent,  —  which  would  have  given  to  the  estab- 
lishment the  advantage  of  a  scientific  head.  But  Dr.  Torrey  resolutely 
declined  the  less  laborious  and  better  paid  post,  and  took  in  preference 
one  the  emoluments  of  which  were  much  below  his  worth  and  the  valu- 
able extraneous  services  he  rendered  to  the  government,  —  simply  because 
he  was  unwilling  to  accept  the  care  and  responsibility  of  treasure. 


JOHN  TORREY.  3G7 

In  two  instances  these  commissions  were  made  personally 
gratifying,  not  by  pecuniary  payment,  which,  beyond  his  sim- 
ple expenses,  he  did  not  receive,  but  by  the  opportunity  they 
afforded  to  recruit  failing  health  and  to  gather  floral  treasures. 
Eight  years  ago  he  was  sent  by  the  Treasury  Department  to 
California,  by  way  of  the  Isthmus ;  and  last  summer  he  went 
again  across  the  continent,  and  in  both  cases  enjoyed  the  rare 
pleasure  of  viewing  in  their  native  soil,  and  plucking  with  his 
own  hands,  many  a  flower  which  he  had  himself  named  and 
described  from  dried  specimens  in  the  herbarium,  and  in  which 
he  felt  a  kind  of  paternal  interest.     Perhaps  this  interest  cul- 
minated last  summer,  when  he  stood  on  the  flank  of  the  lofty 
and  beautiful  snow-clad  peak  to  which  a  grateful  former  pupil 
and   ardent   explorer,  ten    years  before,  gave  his  name,  and 
gathered  charming  alpine  plants  which  he  had  himself  named 
forty  years  before,  when  the  botany  of  the  Colorado  Rocky 
Mountains  was  first  opened.    That  age  and  fast-failing  strength 
had   not   dimmed  his  enjoyment,  may  be  inferred   from   his 
remark  when,  on  his  return  from  Florida  the  previous  spring, 
with  a  grievous  cough  allayed,  he  was  rallied  for  having  gone 
to  seek  Ponce  de  Leon's  Fountain  of  Youth.     "  No,"  said  he, 
"give  me  the  fountain  of  old  age.     The  longer  I  live,  the 
more  I  enjoy  life."     He  evidently  did  so.     If  never  robust,  he 
was  rarely  ill,  and  his  last  sickness  brought  little  suffering, 
and  no  diminution  of  his  characteristic  cheerfulness.     To  him, 
indeed,  never  came  the  "  evil  days  "  of  which  he  could  say, 
"  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them." 

Evincing  in  age  much  of  the  ardor  and  all  of  the  ingenu- 
ousness of  youth,  he  enjoyed  the  society  of  young  men  and 
students,  and  was  helpful  to  them  long  after  he  ceased  to 
teach,  — if,  indeed,  he  ever  did  cease.  For,  as  Emeritus 
Professor  in  Columbia  College  (with  which  his  old  Medical 
School  was  united),  he  not  only  opened  his  herbarium,  but 
gave  some  lectures  almost  every  year,  and  as  a  trustee  of  the 
college  for  many  years  he  rendered  faithful  and  important 
service.  His  large  and  truly  invaluable  herbarium,  along 
with  a  choice  botanical  library,  he  several  years  ago  made  over 
to  Columbia  College,  which  charges  itself  with  its  safe  preser- 
vation and  maintenance. 


338  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Dr.  Torrey  leaves  three  daughters,  a  son,  who  has  been 
appointed  United  States  assayer  in  his  father's  place,  and  a 
grandson. 

This  sketch  of  Dr.  Torrey's  public  life  and  works,  which  it 
is  our  main  duty  to  exhibit,  would  fall  short  of  its  object  if  it 
did  not  convey,  however  briefly  and  incidentally,  some  just 
idea  of  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  That  he  was  earnest, 
indefatigable,  and  able,  it  is  needless  to  say.  His  gifts  as  a 
teacher  were  largely  proved  and  are  widely  known  through  a 
long  generation  of  pupils.  As  an  investigator  he  was  charac- 
terized by  a  scrupulous  accuracy,  a  remarkable  fertility  of 
mind,  especially  as  shown  in  devising  ways  and  means  of 
research,  and  perhaps  by  some  excess  of  caution. 

Other  biographers  will  doubtless  dwell  upon  the  more  per- 
sonal aspects  and  characteristics  of  our  distinguished  and 
lamented  associate.  To  them,  indeed,  may  fittingly  be  left 
the  full  delineation  and  illustration  of  the  traits  of  a  singu- 
larly transparent,  genial,  delicate,  and  conscientious,  unselfish 
character,  which  beautified  and  fructified  a  most  industrious 
and  useful  life,  and  won  the  affection  of  all  who  knew  him. 
For  one  thing,  they  cannot  fail  to  notice  his  thorough  love 
of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and  his  entire  confidence  that  the 
legitimate  results  of  scientific  inquiry  would  never  be  in- 
imical to  the  Christian  religion,  which  he  held  with  an  un- 
troubled faith,  and  illustrated,  most  naturally  and  unpretend- 
ingly, in  all  his  life  and  conversation.  In  this,  as  well  as  in 
the  simplicity  of  his  character,  he  much  resembled  Faraday. 

Dr.  Torrey  was  an  honorary  or  corresponding  member  of  a 
goodly  number  of  the  scientific  societies  of  Europe,  and  was 
naturally  connected  with  all  prominent  institutions  of  the 
kind  in  this  country.  He  was  chosen  into  the  American 
Academy  in  the  year  184-1.  He  was  one  of  the  corporate 
members  of  the  National  Academy  at  Washington.  He  pre- 
sided in  his  turn  over  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  ;  and  he  was  twice,  for  considera- 
ble periods,  president  of  the  New  York  Lyceum  of  Natural 
History,  which  was  in  those  days  one  of  the  foremost  of  our 
scientific  societies.     It  has  been  said  of  him   that  the   sole 


JOHN   TORRE  Y.  369 

distinction  on  which  he  prided  himself  was  his  membership 
in  the  order  of  the  Cincinnati,  the  only  honor  in  this  country 
which  comes  by  inheritance. 

As  to  the  customary  testimonial  which  the  botanist  receives 
from  his  fellows,  it  is  fortunate  that  the  first  attempts  were 
nugatory.  Almost  in  his  youth  a  genus  was  dedicated  to  him 
by  his  correspondent,  Sprengel :  this  proved  to  be  a  Cleroden- 
dron,  misunderstood.  A  second,  proposed  by  Rafinesque,  was 
founded  on  an  artificial  dismemberment  of  Cyperus.  The 
ground  was  clear,  therefore,  when,  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  a 
new  and  remarkable  evergreen  tree  was  discovered  in  our  own 
southern  States,  which  it  was  at  once  determined  should  bear 
Dr.  Torrey's  name.  More  recently  a  congener  was  found  in 
the  noble  forests  of  California.  Another  species  had  already 
been  recognized  in  Japan,  and  lately  a  fourth  in  the  mountains 
of  northern  China.  All  four  of  them  have  been  introduced, 
and  are  greatly  prized  as  ornamental  trees  in  Europe.  So 
that,  all  round  the  world,  Torreya  taxifolia,  Torreya  Cal'i- 
fornica,  Torreya  nucifera,  and  Torreya  grandis  —  as  well  as 
his  own  important  contributions  to  botany,  of  which  they  are 
a  memorial  —  should  keep  our  associate's  memory  as  green  as 
their  own  perpetual  verdure. 


WILLIAM  STARLING  SULLIVANT.1 

William  Starling  Sullivant,  LL.  D.,  died  at  his  resi- 
dence in  Columbus,  Ohio,  on  the  30th  of  April,  ultimo.  In 
him  we  lose  the  most  accomplished  bryologist  which  this 
country  has  produced  ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  he 
leaves  behind  him  anywhere  a  superior. 

He  was  born,  January  15,  1803,  at  the  little  village  of 
Franklin  ton,  then  a  frontier  settlement  in  the  midst  of  primi- 
tive forest,  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Columbus.  His 
father,  a  Virginian,  and  a  man  of  marked  character,  was  aj> 
pointed  by  government  to  survey  the  lands  of  that  district  of 
the  Northwestern  Territory  which  became  the  central  part 
of  the  now  populous  State  of  Ohio ;  and  he  early  purchased 
a  large  tract  of  land,  bordering  on  the  Scioto  River,  near  by, 
if  not  including,  the  locality  which  was  afterwards  fixed  upon 
for  the  state  capital. 

William,  his  eldest  son,  in  his  boyhood,  if  he  endured  some 
of  the  privations,  yet  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  this  frontier 
life,  in  the  way  of  physical  training  and  early  self-reliance. 
But  he  was  sent  to  school  in  Kentucky ;  he  received  the  rudi- 
ments of  his  classical  education  at  the  so-called  Ohio  Univer- 
sity at  Athens,  upon  the  opening  of  that  seminary ;  and  was 
afterward  transferred  to  Yale  College,  where  he  was  graduated 
in  the  year  1823.  His  plans  for  studying  a  profession  were 
frustrated  by  the  death  of  his  father  in  that  year.  This  re- 
quired him  to  occupy  himself  with  the  care  of  the  family 
property,  then  mainly  in  lands,  mills,  etc.,  and  demanding 
much  and  varied  attention.  He  became  surveyor  and  prac- 
tical engineer,  and  indeed  took  an  active  part  in  business 
down   to  a  recent  period.     Leisure  is  hardly  to  be  had  in  a 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  ix.  271. 
(1873.) 


WILLIAM  STARLING   SULLIVANT.  371 

newly  settled  country,  and  least  of  all  by  those  who  have  pos- 
sessions. Mr.  Sullivant  must  have  reached  the  age  of  nearly 
thirty  years,  and,  having  married  early,1  was  established  in 
his  suburban  residence  in  a  rich  floral  district,  before  his  taste 
for  natural  history  was  at  all  developed.  His  brother  Joseph, 
next  in  age,  was  already  somewhat  proficient  in  botany  as  w  < -11 
as  in  conchology  and  ornithology;  and  when  in  some  way  Bis 
own  interest  in  the  subject  was  at  length  excited,  he  took  it 
up  with  characteristic  determination  to  know  well  whatever 
he  undertook  to  know  at  all.  He  collected  and  carefully 
studied  the  plants  of  the  central  j)art  of  Ohio,  made  neat 
sketches  of  the  minuter  parts  of  many  of  them,  especially  of 
the  Grasses  and  Sedges,  entered  into  communication  with  the 
leading  botanists  of  the  country,  and  in  1840  he  published 
"A  Catalogue  of  Plants,  Native  or  Naturalized,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Columbus,  Ohio,"  (pp.  63,)  to  which  he  added  a  few  pages 
of  valuable  notes.  His  only  other  direct  publication  in  Pha3- 
nogamous  botany  is  a  short  article  upon  three  new  plants  which 
he  had  discovered  in  that  district,  contributed  to  the  "  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,"  in  the  year  1842.  The 
observations  which  he  continued  to  make  were  communicated 
to  his  correspondents  and  friends,  the  authors  of  the  Flora  of 
North  America,  then  in  progress.  As  soon  as  the  flowering 
plants  of  his  district  had  ceased  to  afford  him  novelty,  he 
turned  to  the  Mosses,  in  which  he  found  abundant  scientific 
occupation,  of  a  kind  well  suited  to  his  bent  for  patient  and 
close  observation,  scrupulous  accuracy,  and  nice  discrimina- 
tion. His  first  publication  in  his  chosen  department,  the 
"  Musci  Alleghanienses,"  was  accompanied  by  the  specimens 
themselves  of  Mosses  and  HepaticcB  collected  in  a  botanical 
expedition  through  the  Alleghany  Mountains  from  Maryland 
to  Georgia,  in  the  summer  of  1843,  the  writer  of  this  notice 
being  his  companion.  The  specimens  were  not  only  criti- 
cally determined,  but  exquisitely  prepared  and  mounted,  and 
with  letter-press  of  great  perfection  ;  the  whole  forming  two 
quarto  volumes,  which  well  deserve  the  encomium  bestowed 

1  His   first   wife,  Jane  Marshall  of   Kentucky,  was   a   niece  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall.     She  died  a  few  years  after  marriage. 


372  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

by  Pritzel  in  his  Thesaurus.1  It  was  not  put  on  sale,  but  fifty 
copies  were  distributed  with  a  free  hand  among  bryologists 
and  others  who  would  appreciate  it.2 

In  1846,  Mr.  Sullivant  communicated  to  the  American 
Academy  the  first  part,  and  in  1849,  the  second  part  of  his 
"  Contributions  to  the  Bryology  and  Hepaticology  of  North 
America,"  which  appeared,  one  in  the  third,  the  other  in  the 
fourth  volume  (new  series J  of  the  Academy's  Memoirs,  each 
with  five  plates,  from  the  author's  own  admirable  drawings. 
These  plates  were  engraved  at  his  own  expense,  and  were 
generously  given  to  the  Academy. 

When  the  second  edition  of  Gray's  "  Manual  of  the  Botany 
of  the  Northern  United  States  "  was  in  preparation,  Mr.  Sul- 
livant was  asked  to  contribute  to  it  a  compendious  account  of 
the  Musci  and  Hepaticce  of  the  region  ;  which  he  did,  in  the 
space  of  about  one  hundred  pages,  generously  adding,  at  his 
sole  charge,  eight  copperplates  crowded  with  illustrations  of 
the  details  of  the  genera,  —  thus  enhancing  vastly  the  value 
of  his  friend's  work,  and  laying  a  foundation  for  the  general 
study  of  bryology  in  the  United  States,  which  then  and  thus 
began. 

So  excellent  are  these  illustrations,  both  in  plan  and  execu- 
tion, that  Schimper,  then  the  leading  bryologist  of  the  Old 
World,  and  a  most  competent  judge,  since  he  has  published 
hundreds  of  figures  in  his  "  Bryologia  Europsea,"  not  only 
adopted  the  same  plan  in  his  "  Synopsis  of  the  European 
Mosses,"  but  also  the  very  figures  themselves  (a  few  of  which 
were,  however,  originally  his  own),  whenever  they  would  serve 
his  purpose,  as  was  the  case  with  most  of  them.  A  separate 
edition  was  published  of  this  portion  of  the  Manual,  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Musci  and  Hepaticse  of  the  United  States  east 

1  "  Huic  splendidse  impressse  292  specierum  enumeration!  accedit  ele- 
gantissima  speciminum  omnium  exsiecatorum  collectio." 

2  A  tribute  is  justly  due  to  the  memory  of  the  second  Mrs.  (Eliza  Gr. 
Wheeler)  Sullivant,  a  lady  of  rare  accomplishments,  and,  not  least,  a 
zealous  and  acute  bryologist,  her  husband's  efficient  associate  in  all  his 
scientific  work  until  her  death,  of  cholera,  in  1850  or  1851.  Her  botanical 
services  are  commemorated  in  Hypnum  Sullivantice  of  Schimper,  a  new 
Moss  of  Ohio. 


WILLIAM  STARLING   SULLIVANT.  378 

of  the  Mississippi  River  "  (New  York,  1856,  imperial  8vo), 
upon  thick  paper,  and  with  proof-impressions  directly  from 
the  copperplates.  This  exquisite  volume  was  placed  on  sale 
at  far  less  than  its  cost,  and  copies  are  now  of  great  rarity 
and  value.  It  was  with  regret  that  the  author  of  the  Manual 
omitted  this  Cryptogamic  portion  from  the  ensuing  editions, 
and  only  with  the  understanding  that  a  separate  "  Species 
Muscorum,"  or  Manual  for  the  Mosses  of  the  whole  United 
States,  should  rej:>lace  it.  This  most  needful  work  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant  was  just  about  to  prepare  for  the  press. 

About  the  same  time  that  Mr.  Sullivant  thus  gave  to 
American  students  a  text-book  for  our  Mosses,  he  provided 
an  unequaled  series  of  named  specimens  for  illustrating  them. 
The  ample  stores  which  he  had  collected  or  acquired,  supple- 
mented by  those  collected  by  M.  Lesquereux  (who  was  asso- 
ciated with  him  from  the  year  1848)  in  a  journey  through  the 
mountainous  parts  of  the  southern  States  under  his  auspices, 
after  critical  determination  were  divided  into  fifty  sets,  each 
of  about  three  hundred  and  sixty  species  or  varieties,  with 
printed  tickets,  title,  index,  etc.,  and  all  except  a  few  copies 
for  gratuitous  distribution  were  generously  made  over,  to  be 
sold  at  less  than  cost,  for  his  esteemed  associate's  benefit,  and 
still  more  for  that  of  the  botanists  and  institutions  who  could 
thus  acquire  them.  The  title  of  this  classical  work  and  col- 
lection is  "  Musci  Boreali  Americani  quorum  specimina  ex- 
siccati  ediderunt  W.  S.  Sullivant  et  L.  Lesquereux  ;  185G." 
Naturally  enough  the  edition  was  immediately  taken  up. 

In  1865  it  was  followed  by  a  new  one,  or  rather  a  new  work, 
of  between  five  and  six  hundred  numbers,  many  of  them  Cali- 
fornian  species,  the  first-fruits  of  Dr.  Bolander's  researches 
in  that  country.  The  sets  of  this  unequaled  collection  were 
disposed  of  with  the  same  unequaled  liberality,  and  with  the 
sole  view  of  advancing  the  knowledge  of  his  favorite  science. 
This  second  edition  being  exhausted,  he  recently  and  in  the 
same  spirit  aided  his  friend  Mr.  Austin,  both  in  the  study 
and  in  the  publication  of  his  extensive  "Musci  Appalachians  " 

To  complete  here  the  account  of  Mr.  Sullivant's  bryological 
labors  illustrated  by  "exsiccati,"  we  may  mention  his  "Musci 


374  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Cubenses,"  named,  and  the  new  species  described  in  1861, 
from  Charles  Wright's  earlier  collections  in  Cuba,  and  dis- 
tributed in  sets  by  the  collector.  His  researches  upon  later 
and  more  extensive  collections  by  Mr.  Wright  remain  in  the 
form  of  notes  and  pencil  sketches,  in  which  many  new  species 
are  indicated.  The  same  may  be  said  of  an  earlier  still  un- 
published collection,  made  by  Fendler  in  Venezuela.  Another 
collection,  of  great  extent  and  interest,  which  was  long  ago 
elaborately  prepared  for  publication^  and  illustrated  by  very 
many  exquisite  drawings,  rests  in  his  portfolios,  through  delays 
over  which  Mr.  Sullivant  had  no  control ;  namely,  the  Bry- 
ology of  Rodgers's  United  States  North  Pacific  Exploring 
Expedition,  of  which  Charles  Wright  was  botanist.  Brief 
characters  of  the  principal  new  species  were,  however,  duly 
published  in  this  as  in  other  departments  of  the  botany  of 
that  expedition.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  drawings 
which  illustrate  them  have  not  yet  been  engraved  and  given 
to  the  scientific  world. 

This  has  fortunately  been  done  in  the  case  of  the  South 
Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  under  Commodore  Wilkes. 
For,  although  the  volume  containing  the  Mosses  has  not  even 
yet  been  issued  by  government,  Mr.  Sullivant's  portion  of  it 
was  published  in  a  separate  edition  in  the  year  1859.  It 
forms  a  sumptuous  imperial  folio,  the  letter-press  having  been 
made  up  into  large  pages,  and  printed  on  paper  which  matches 
the  plates,  twenty-six  in  number. 

One  volume  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Reports,  i.  e.  the  fourth, 
contains  a  paper  by  Mr.  Sullivant,  being  his  account  of  the 
Mosses  collected  in  AVhipple's  Exploration.  It  consists  of 
only  a  dozen  pages  of  letter-press,  but  is  illustrated  by  ten 
admirable  plates  of  new  species. 

The  "  Icones  Muscorum,"  however,  is  Mr.  Sullivant's 
crowning  work.  It  consists,  as  the  title  indicates,  of  "  Fig- 
ures and  Descriptions  of  most  of  those  Mosses  peculiar  to 
eastern  North  America  which  have  not  been  heretofore  fig- 
ured," and  forms  an  imperial  octavo  volume,  with  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-nine  copperplates,  published  in  1864.  The 
letter-press  and  the  plates    (upon   which   last  alone  several 


WILLIAM  STARLING   SULLIVANT.  375 

thousand  dollars  and  immense  pains  were  expended)  are 
simply  exquisite  and  wholly  unrivaled ;  and  the  scientific 
character  is  acknowledged  to  be  worthy  of  the  setting-. 
Within  the  last  few  years  most  of  the  time  which  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant  could  devote  to  science  has  been  given  to  the  preparation 
of  a  second  or  supplementary  volume  of  the  Icones.  The 
plates,  it  is  understood,  are  completed,  the  descriptions  in  a 
good  degree  written  out,  and  the  vernal  months  in  which  his 
mortal  life  closed  were  to  have  been  devoted  to  the  printing. 
The  Manual  of  North  American  Mosses  was  speedily  to 
follow. 

He  was  remarkably  young  for  his  years,  so  that  the  hopes 
and  expectations  in  which  we  were  indulging  seemed  reason- 
able. But  in  January,  not  far  from  his  seventieth  birthday, 
he  was  prostrated  by  pneumonia,  from  the  consequences  of 
which,  after  some  seeming  convalescence,  he  died  upon  the 
last  day  of  April.  He  leaves  a  wife,  Mrs.  Caroline  E.  (Sut- 
ton) Sullivant,  children,  grandchildren,  and  great-grandchil- 
dren, to  inherit  a  stainless  and  honored  name,  and  to  cherish 
a  noble  memory. 

In  personal  appearance  and  carriage,  no  less  than  in  all  the 
traits  of  an  unselfish  and  well-balanced  character,  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant was  a  fine  specimen  of  a  man.  He  had  excellent  busi- 
ness talents,  and  was  an  exemplary  citizen ;  he  had  a  refined 
and  sure  taste,  and  was  an  accomplished  draughtsman.  But 
after  having  illustrated  his  earlier  productions  with  his  own 
pencil,  he  found  that  valuable  time  was  to  be  gained  by  em- 
ploying a  trained  artist.  He  discovered  in  Mr.  A.  Schrader 
a  hopeful  draughtsman,  and  he  educated  him  to  the  work, 
with  what  excellent  results  the  plates  of  the  Icones  and  of 
his  other  works  abundantly  show.  As  an  investigator  he 
worked  deliberately,  slowly  indeed  and  not  continuously,  but 
perseveringly.  Having  chosen  his  particular  department,  lie 
gave  himself  undeviatingly  to  its  advancement.  His  works 
have  laid  such  a  broad  and  complete  foundation  for  the  study 
of  bryology  in  this  country,  and  are  of  such  recognized  im- 
portance everywhere,  that  they  must  always  be  of  classical 
authority  ;  in  fact,  they  are  likely  to  remain  for  a  long  time 


376  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

unrivaled.  Wherever  Mosses  are  studied,  his  name  will  be 
honorably  remembered  ;  in  this  country  it  should  long  be 
remembered  with  peculiar  gratitude. 

In  accordance  with  his  wishes,  his  bryological  books  and 
his  exceedingly  rich  and  important  collections  and  prepara- 
tions of  Mosses  are  to  be  consigned  to  the  Gray  Herbarium 
of  Harvard  University,  with  a  view  to  their  preservation  and 
long-continued  usefulness.  The  remainder  of  his  botanical 
library,  his  choice  microscopes,  and  other  collections  are  be- 
queathed to  the  State  Scientific  and  Agricultural  College, 
just  established  at  Columbus,  and  to  the  Starling  Medical 
College,  founded  by  his  uncle,  of  which  he  was  himself  the 
senior  trustee. 

Mr.  Sullivant  was  chosen  into  the  American  Academy  in 
the  year  1845.  He  received  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws  from  Gambier  College,  in  his  native  State.  His  old- 
est botanical  associates  long  ago  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  be- 
stowing the  name  of  Sullivantia  Ohionis  upon  a  very  rare 
and  interesting  but  modest  and  neat  Saxifragaceous  plant, 
which  he  himself  discovered  in  his  native  State,  on  the  se- 
cluded banks  of  a  tributary  of  the  river  which  flows  by  the 
place  where  he  was  born,  and  where  his  remains  now  repose. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.1 

When  we  think  of  the  associate  and  friend  whose  death 
this  Society  now  deplores,  and  remember  how  modest  and  re- 
tiring he  was,  how  averse  to  laudation  and  reticent  of  words, 
we  feel  it  becoming  to  speak  of  him  now  that  he  is  gone, 
with  much  of  the  reserve  which  would  be  imposed  upon  us  if 
he  were  living.  Yet  his  own  perfect  truthfulness  and  nice 
sense  of  justice,  and  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  con- 
templation of  such  a  character  by  way  of  example,  may  be 
our  warrant  for  reasonable  freedom  in  the  expression  of  our 
judgments  and  our  sentiments,  taking  care  to  avoid  all  ex- 
aggeration. 

Appropriate  and  sincere  eulogies  and  expressions  of  loss, 
both  official  and  personal,  have,  however,  already  been  pro- 
nounced or  published ;  and  among  them  one  from  the  gov- 
ernors of  that  institution  to  which,  together  with  our  own 
Society,  most  of  Professor  Wyman's  official  life  and  services 
were  devoted,  —  which  appears  to  me  to  delineate  in  the  few- 
est words  the  truest  outlines  of  his  character.  In  it  the  Pres- 
ident and  Fellows  of  Harvard  University  "  recall  with  affec- 
tionate respect  and  admiration  the  sagacity,  patience,  and 
rectitude  which  characterized  all  his  scientific  work,  his  clear- 
ness, accuracy,  and  conciseness  as  a  writer  and  teacher,  and 
the  industry  and  zeal  with  which  he  labored  upon  the  two  ad- 
mirable collections  which  remain  as  monuments  of  his  rare 
knowledge,  method,  and  skill.  They  commend  to  the  young 
men  of  the  University  this  signal  example  of  a  character 
modest,  tranquil,  dignified,  and  independent,  and  of  a  life 
simple,  contented,  and  honored." 

What  more  can  be  or  need  be  said  ?     It  is  left  for  me,  in 

1  An  address  delivered  at  a  memorial  meeting  of  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History,  October  7,  1874. 


378  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

compliance  with  your  invitation,  Mr.  President,  to  say  some- 
thing of  what  he  was  to  us,  and  has  done  for  us,  and  to  put 
upon  record,  for  the  use  of  those  who  come  after  us,  some 
account  of  his  uneventful  life,  some  notice,  however  imperfect, 
of  his  work  and  his  writings.  I  could  not  do  this  without  the 
help  of  friends  who  knew  him  well  in  early  life,  and  of  some 
of  you  who  are  much  more  conversant  than  I  am  with  most 
of  his  researches.  Such  aid,  promptly  rendered,  has  been 
thankfully  accepted  and  freely  used. 

Our  associate's  father,  Dr.  Rufus  Wyman,  —  born  in 
Woburn,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1799,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  life  physician  to  the  McLean  Asylum  for 
the  Insane,  —  was  a  man  of  marked  ability  and  ingenuity. 
Called  to  the  charge  of  this  earliest  institution  of  the  kind 
in  New  England  at  its  beginning,  he  organized  the  plan  of 
treatment  and  devised  excellent  mechanical  arrangements, 
which  have  since  been  developed,  and  introduced  into  other 
establishments  of  the  kind.  His  mother  was  Ann  Morill, 
daughter  of  James  Morill,  a  Boston  merchant.  This  name  is 
continued,  and  is  familiar  to  us,  in  that  of  our  associate's 
elder  brother. 

Jeffries  Wyman,  the  third  son,  derived  his  baptismal  name 
from  the  distinguished  Dr.  John  Jeffries  of  Boston,  under 
whom  his  father  studied  medicine.  He  was  born  on  the  11th 
of  August,  1814,  at  Chelmsford,  a  township  of  a  few  hundred 
inhabitants  in  Middlesex  County,  Massachusetts,  not  far 
from  the  present  city  of  Lowell.  As  his  father  took  up  his 
residence  at  the  McLean  Asylum  in  1818,  when  Jeffries  was 
only  four  years  old,  he  received  the  rudiments  of  his  educa- 
tion at  Charlestown,  in  a  private  school,  but  afterwards  went 
to  the  Academy  at  Chelmsford,  and  in  1826  to  Philips  Exeter 
Academy,  where,  under  the  instruction  of  Dr.  Abbot,  he  was 
prepared  for  college.  He  entered  Harvard  College  in  1829, 
the  year  in  which  Josiah  Quincy  took  the  presidency,  and  was 
graduated  in  1833,  in  a  class  of  fifty-six,  six  of  whom  became 
professors  in  the  University.  He  was  not  remarkable  for 
general  scholarship,  but  was  fond  of  chemistry,  and  his  pref- 
erence for  anatomical  studies  was  already  developed.     Some 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  379 

of  his  classmates  remember  the  interest  which  was  excited 
among  them  by  a  skeleton  which  he  made  of  a  mammoth  bull- 
frog from  Fresh  Pond,  probably  one  which  is  still  preserved 
in  his  museum  of  comparative  anatomy.  His  skill  and  taste 
in  drawing,  which  he  turned  to  such  excellent  account  in  his 
investigations  and  in  the  lecture  room,  as  well  as  his  habit  of 
close  observation  of  natural  objects  met  with  in  his  strolls, 
were  manifested  even  in  boyhood. 

An  attack  of  pneumonia  during  his  senior  year  in  college 
caused  much  anxiety,  and  perhaps  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
pulmonary  affection  which  burdened  and  finally  shortened  his 
life.  To  recover  from  the  effects  of  the  attack,  and  to  guard 
against  its  return,  he  made,  in  the  winter  of  1833-34,  the 
first  of  those  pilgrimages  to  the  coast  of  the  southern  States, 
which  in  later  years  were  so  often  repeated.  Returning  with 
strength  renewed  in  the  course  of  the  following  spring,  be 
began  the  study  of  medicine  under  Dr.  John  C.  Dalton,  who 
had  succeeded  to  his  father's  practice  at  Chelmsford,  but  who 
soon  removed  to  the  adjacent  and  thriving  town  of  Lowell. 
Here,  and  with  his  father  at  the  McLean  Asylum  and  at  the 
Medical  College  in  Boston,  he  passed  two  years  of  profitable 
study.  At  the  commencement  of  the  third  year  he  was 
elected  house-student  in  the  medical  department,  at  the  Mas- 
sachusetts General  Hospital,  —  then  under  the  charge  of 
Drs.  James  Jackson,  John  Ware,  and  Walter  Channing,  — 
a  responsible  position,  not  only  most  advantageous  for  the 
study  of  disease,  but  well  adapted  to  sharpen  a  young  man's 
power  of  observation. 

In  1837,  after  receiving  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine, 
he  cast  about  among  the  larger  country  towns  lor  a  field  in 
which  to  practise  his  profession.  Fortunately  for  science  he 
found  no  opening  to  his  mind  ;  so  he  took  an  office  in  Boston, 
on  Washington  Street,  and  accepted  the  honorable  but  far 
from  lucrative  post  of  demonstrator  of  anatomy  under  Dr. 
John  C.  Warren,  the  Hersey  professor.  His  means  wire 
very  slender,  and  his  life  abstemious  to  the  verge  of  privation  : 
for  he  was  unwilling  to  burden  his  father,  who  indeed  had 
done  all  he  could  in  providing  for  the  education  of  two  sons. 


380  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know,  that,  to  eke  out  his  subsistence, 
he  became  at  this  time  a  member  of  the  Boston  Fire  Depart- 
ment, under  an  appointment  of  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  Mayor, 
dated  September  1,  1838.  He  was  assigned  to  Engine  No. 
18.  The  rule  was  that  the  first-comer  to  the  engine-house 
should  bear  the  lantern,  and  be  absolved  from  other  work. 
Wyman  lived  near  by,  and  his  promptitude  generally  saved 
him  from  all  severer  labor  than  that  of  enlightening  his 
company. 

The  turning-point  in  his  life,  i.  e.,  an  opportunity  which  he 
could  seize  of  devoting  it  to  science,  came  when  Mr.  John  A. 
Lowell  offered  him  the  curatorship  of  the  Lowell  Institute, 
just  brought  into  operation,  and  a  course  of  lectures  in  it. 
He  delivered  his  course  of  twelve  lectures  upon  comparative 
anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  winter  of  1840-41  ;  and  with 
the  money  earned  by  this  first  essay  in  instructing  others,  he 
went  to  Europe  to  seek  further  instruction  for  himself.  He 
reached  Paris  in  May,  1841,  and  gave  his  time  at  once  to 
human  anatomy  at  the  School  of  Medicine,  and  compara- 
tive anatomy  and  natural  history  at  the  Garden  of  Plants, 
attending  the  lectures  of  Flourens,  Majendie,  and  Longet  on 
physiology,  and  of  De  Blainville,  Isidore  St.  Hilaire,  Valen- 
ciennes, Dumeril,  and  Milne-Edwards  on  zoology  and  com- 
parative anatomy.  In  the  summer,  when  the  lectures  were 
over,  he  made  a  pedestrian  journey  along  the  banks  of  the 
Loire,  and  another  along  the  Rhine,  returning  through  Bel- 
gium, and  by  steamer  to  London.  There,  while  engaged  in 
the  study  of  the  Hunterian  collections  at  the  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons,  he  received  information  of  the  alarming  illness  of 
his  father ;  he  immediately  turned  his  face  homeward,  but  on 
reaching  Halifax  he  learned  that  his  father  was  no  more. 

He  resumed  his  residence  in  Boston,  and  devoted  himself 
mainly  to  scientific  work,  under  circumstances  of  no  small 
discouragement.  But  in  1843  the  means  of  a  modest  pro- 
fessional livelihood  came  to  him  in  the  offer  of  the  chair  of 
anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  medical  department  of  Hamp- 
den-Sidney  College,  established  at  Richmond,  Virginia.  One 
advantage  of  this  position  was  that  it  did  not  interrupt  his 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  381 

residence  in  Boston  except  for  the  winter  and  spring ;  and 
during  these  months  the  milder  climate  of  Richmond  was  even 
then  desirable.  He  discharged  the  duties  of  the  chair  most 
acceptably  for  five  sessions,  until  in  1847  he  was  appointed 
to  succeed  Dr.  Warren  as  Hersey  professor  of  anatomy  in 
Harvard  College,  the  Parkman  professorship  in  the  Medical 
School  in  Boston  being  tilled  by  the  present  incumbent,  Dr. 
Holmes.  Thus  commenced  Professor  Wyman's  most  useful 
and  honorable  connection  as  a  teacher  with  the  University,  of 
which  the  President  and  Fellows  speak  in  the  terms  I  have 
already  recited.  He  began  his  work  in  llolden  Chapel,  the 
upper  floor  being  the  lecture  room,  the  lower  containing  the 
dissecting  room  and  the  anatomical  museum  of  the  college, 
with  which  he  combined  his  own  collections  and  preparations, 
which  from  that  time  forward  increased  rapidly  in  number 
and  value  under  his  industrious  and  skillful  hands.  At  length 
Boylston  Hall  was  built  for  the  anatomical  and  the  chemical 
departments,  and  the  museum,  lecture  and  working  rooms 
were  established  comtnodiously  in  their  present  quarters ;  and 
Professor  AVyman's  department  assumed  the  rank  and  im- 
portance which  it  deserved.  Both  human  and  comparative 
anatomy  were  taught  to  special  pupils,  some  of  whom  have 
proved  themselves  worthy  of  their  honored  master,  while  the 
annual  courses  of  lectures  and  lessons  on  anatomy,  physi- 
ology, and  for  a  time  the  principles  of  zoology,  imparted 
highly  valued  instruction  to  undergraduates  and  others. 

In  the  formation  and  perfecting  of  his  museum  —  the  first 
of  the  kind  in  the  country,  arranged  upon  a  plan  both  physi- 
ological and  morphological  —  no  pains  and  labors  were  spared, 
and  long  and  arduous  journeys  and  voyages  were  made  to  con- 
tribute to  its  riches.  In  the  summer  of  1849,  —  having  re- 
plenished his  frugal  means  with  the  proceeds  <»f  a  second 
course  of  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute  (namely,  upon 
comparative  physiology,  a  good  condensed  shorthand  report  of 
which  was  published  at  the  time).  —  li«'  accompanied  Captain 
Atwood  of  Provincetown,  in  a  small  sloop,  upon  a  fishing  voy- 
age high  up  the  coast  of  Labrador.  In  the  winter  of  ls.">:2, 
going  to  Florida  tor  his  health,  he  began  his  fruitful  series  of 


682  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

explorations  and  collections  in  that  interesting  district.  In 
1854,  accompanied  by  bis  wife,  be  traveled  extensively  in 
Europe,  and  visited  all  the  museums  within  bis  reach.  In  the 
spring  of  1856,  with  his  pupils  Green  and  Bancroft  as  com- 
panions and  assistants,  he  sailed  to  Surinam,  penetrated  far 
into  the  interior  in  canoes,  made  important  researches  upon 
the  ground,  and  enriched  his  museum  with  some  of  its  most 
interesting  collections.  These  came  near  being  too  dearly 
bought,  as  he  and  his  companions  took  the  fever  of  the  coun- 
try, from  which  he  suffered  severely,  and  recovered  slowly. 
Again,  in  1858-9,  accepting  the  thoughtful  and  generous  in- 
vitation of  Captain  J.  M.  Forbes,  he  made  a  voyage  to  the  La 
Plata,  and  ascended  the  Uruguay  and  the  Parana  in  a  small 
iron  steamer  which  Captain  Forbes  brought  upon  the  deck  of 
his  vessel ;  then,  with  his  friend  George  Augustus  Peabody 
as  a  companion,  he  crossed  the  pampas  to  Mendosa,  and  the 
Cordilleras  to  Santiago  and  Valparaiso,  whence  he  came  home 
by  way  of  the  Peruvian  coast  and  the  Isthmus. 

By  such  expeditions  many  of  the  choice  materials  of  his 
museum  and  of  his  researches  were  gathered,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, to  be  carefully  prepared  and  elaborated  by  his  own 
unaided  hands.  A  vast  neighboring  museum  is  a  splendid 
example  of  what  munificence,  called  forth  by  personal  enthusi- 
asm, may  accomplish.  In  Dr.  Wyman's  we  have  an  example 
of  what  one  man  may  do,  unaided,  with  feeble  health  and 
feebler  means,  by  persistent  and  well  directed  industry,  with- 
out eclat,  and  almost  without  observation.  While  we  duly 
honor  those  who  of  their  abundance  cast  their  gifts  into  the 
treasury  of  science,  let  us  not  —  now  that  he  cannot  be  pained 
by  our  praise  —  forget  to  honor  one  who  in  silence  and  penury 
cast  in  more  than  they  all. 

Of  penury  in  a  literal  sense  we  may  not  speak ;  for  although 
Professor  Wyman's  salary,  derived  from  the  Hersey  endow- 
ment, was  slender  indeed,  he  adapted  his  wants  to  his  means, 
foregoing  neither  his  independence  nor  his  scientific  work  ; 
and  I  suppose  no  one  ever  heard  him  complain.  In  1856 
came  unexpected  and  honorable  aid  from  two  old  friends  of 
his  father,  who  appreciated  the  son,  and  wished  him  to  go  on 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  383 

with  his  scientific  work  without  distraction.  One  of  them, 
the  late  Dr.  William  J.  Walker,  sent  him  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars outright ;  the  other,  the  late  Thomas  Lee,  who  had  helped 
in  his  early  education,  supplemented  the  endowment  of  the 
Hersey  professorship  with  an  equal  sum,  stipulating  that  the 
income  thereof  should  be  paid  to  Professor  Wyman  during 
life,  whether  he  held  the  chair  or  not.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has 
a  moderate  sum  produced  a  greater  benefit. 

Throughout  the  later  years  of  Professor  Wyman's  life  a 
new  museum  has  claimed  his  interest  and  care,  and  is  indebted 
to  him  for  much  of  its  value  and  promise.  In  1866,  when 
failing  strength  demanded  a  respite  from  oral  teaching,  and 
required  him  to  pass  most  of  the  season  for  it  in  a  milder 
climate,  he  was  named  by  the  late  George  Peabody  one  of 
the  seven  trustees  of  the  museum  and  professorship  of  Amer- 
ican archaeology  and  ethnology,  which  this  philanthropist  pro- 
ceeded to  found  in  Harvard  University ;  and  his  associates 
called  upon  him  to  take  charge  of  the  establishment.  For 
this  he  was  peculiarly  fitted  by  all  his  previous  studies,  and 
by  his  predilection  for  ethnological  inquiries.  These  had  al- 
ready engaged  his  attention,  and  to  this  class  of  subjects  he 
was  thereafter  mainly  devoted,  —  with  what  sagacity,  consum- 
mate skill,  untiring  diligence  and  success,  his  seventh  annual 
report,  —  the  last  published  just  before  he  died,  — his  elabo- 
rate memoir  on  shell-heaps,  now  printing,  and  especially  the 
Archaeological  Museum  in  Boylston  Hall,  abundantly  testify. 
If  this  museum  be  a  worthy  memorial  of  the  founder's  liber- 
ality and  foresight,  it  is  no  less  a  monument  to  Wyman's  rare 
ability  and  devotion.  Whenever  the  enduring  building  which 
is  to  receive  it  shall  be  erected,  surely  the  name  of  its  first 
curator  and  organizer  should  be  inscribed,  along  with  that  of 
the  founder,  over  its  portal. 

Of  Professor  Wyman's  domestic  life,  let  it  here  suffice  to 
record,  that  in  December,  1850,  he  married  Adeline  Wheel- 
wright, who  died  in  June,  1855,  leaving  two  daughters;  that 
in  August,  1861,  he  married  Anna  Williams  Whitney,  who 
died  in  February,  1864,  shortly  after  the  birth  of  an  only  and 
a  surviving  son. 


384  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Of  his  later  days,  of  the  slow  yet  all  too  rapid  progress  of 
fatal  pulmonary  disease,  it  is  needless  to  protract  the  story. 
Winter  after  winter,  as  he  exchanged  our  bleak  climate  for 
that  of  Florida,  we  could  only  hope  that  he  might  return. 
Spring  after  spring  he  came  back  to  us  invigorated,  thanks  to 
the  bland  air  and  to  open  life  in  boat  and  tent,  which  acted 
like  a  charm ;  —  thanks,  too,  to  the  watchful  care  of  his  at- 
tached friend,  Mr.  Peabody,  his  constant  companion  in  Florida 
life.  One  winter  was  passed  in  Europe,  partly  in  reference 
to  the  Archaeological  Museum,  partly  in  hope  of  better  health ; 
but  no  benefit  was  received.  The  past  winter  in  Florida  pro- 
duced the  usual  amelioration,  and  the  amount  of  work  which 
Dr.  Wyman  undertook  and  accomplished  last  summer  might 
have  tasked  a  robust  man.  There  were  important  accessions 
to  the  archaeological  collections,  upon  which  much  labor,  very 
trying  to  ordinary  patience,  had  to  be  expended.  And  in  the 
last  interview  I  had  with  him,  he  told  me  that  he  had  gone 
through  his  own  museum  of  comparative  anatomy,  which 
had  somewhat  suffered  in  consequence  of  the  alterations  in 
Boylston  Hall,  and  had  put  the  whole  into  perfect  order.  It 
was  late  in  August  when  he  left  Cambridge  for  his  usual  visit 
to  the  White  Mountain  region,  by  which  he  avoided  the  au- 
tumnal catarrh  ;  and  there,  at  Bethlehem,  New  Hampshire, 
on  the  4th  of  September,  a  severe  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs 
suddenly  closed  his  valuable  life. 

Let  us  turn  to  his  relations  with  this  society.  He  entered 
it  in  October,  1837,  just  thirty-seven  years  ago,  and  shortly 
after  he  had  taken  his  degree  of  Doctor  in  Medicine.  He 
was  recording  secretary  from  1839  to  1841 ;  curator  of  ich- 
thyology and  herpetology  from  1841  to  1847 ;  of  herpetol- 
ogy  from  1847  to  1845  ;  of  comparative  anatomy  from  1855 
to  1874.  While  in  these  later  years  his  duties  may  have 
been  almost  nominal,  it  should  be  remembered  that  in  the 
earlier  days  a  curator  not  only  took  charge  of  his  portion  of 
the  museum,  but  in  a  great  degree  created  it.  Then  for  four- 
teen years,  from  1856  to  1870,  he  was  the  president  of  this 
society,  as  assiduous  in  all  its  duties  as  he  was  wise  in  council ; 
and  he  resigned  the  chair  which  he  so  long  adorned  and  digni- 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  385 

fied,  only  when  the  increasing  delicacy  of  his  health,  to  which 
night  exposure  was  prejudicial,  made  it  unsafe  for  him  any 
longer  to  undertake  its  duties.  The  record  shows  that  he  has 
made  here  one  hundred  and  five  scientific  communications, 
several  of  them  very  important  papers,  every  one  of  some  posi- 
tive value ;  for  you  all  know  that  Professor  Wyman  never 
spoke  or  wrote  except  to  a  direct  purpose,  and  because  there 
was  something  which  it  was  worth  while  to  communicate.  He 
bore  his  part  also  in  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences, of  which  he  was  a  Fellow  from  the  year  1843,  and  for 
many  years  a  councilor.  To  it  he  made  a  good  number  of 
communications ;  among  them  one  of  the  longest  and  ablest 
of  his  memoirs. 

Then  he  was  from  the  first  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  where  his  services  and  his 
advice  were  highly  valued.  He  was  chosen  president  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  for  the 
year  1857,  but  did  not  assume  the  duties  of  the  office. 

Some  notice — brief  and  cursory  though  it  must  be  —  of 
such  portion  of  Dr.  "Wy  man's  scientific  work  as  is  recorded 
in  his  published  papers,  should  form  a  part  of  this  account  of 
his  life. 

His  earliest  publication,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  an  article 
in  the  "Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,''  in  1837, signed 
only  with  the  initials  of  his  name.  It  is  upon  "  The  indis- 
tinctness of  images  formed  from  oblique  rays  of  light,"  and 
the  cause  of  it.  The  handling  of  the  subject  is  as  character- 
istic as  that  of  any  later  paper.  In  January,  1841,  we  find 
his  first  recorded  communication  of  this  society,  "  On  the 
Cranium  of  a  Seal."  The  first  to  the  American  Academy  is 
the  account  of  his  dissection  of  the  electrical  organs  of  a  new 
species  of  Torpedo,  in  1843,  part  of  a  paper  by  his  friend 
Dr.  Storer,  published  in  Silliman's  Journal.  In  the  course  of 
that  year,  eleven  communications  were  made  to  our  society, 
beside  the  annual  address,  which  he  delivered  on  the  17th  of 
May.  The  most  important  of  these  was  the  memoir,  by  Dr. 
Savage  and  himself,  on  the  Black  Orang  or  Chimpanzee  of 
Africa,  Troglodytes  niger,  published  in  full  in  the  Journal  of 


386  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

this  society,  the  anatomical  part  by  Professor  Wyman.  Two 
other  papers  of  that  early  year,  on  the  anatomy  of  two  Mol- 
lusca,  Tebennophorus  Carolinensis  and  Glandina  truncata, 
published  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  society's  Journal,  each 
with  a  copper  plate,  are  noteworthy,  as  showing  that  he  pos- 
sessed from  the  first  that  happy  faculty  of  clear,  terse,  and 
closely  relevant  exposition,  and  that  skill  and  neatness  of  illus- 
tration with  his  pencil,  which  characterize  all  his  work,  both 
of  research  and  instruction. 

Another  paper  of  that  year,  "  On  the  microscopic  structure 
of  the  teeth  of  the  Lepidostei,  and  their  analogies  with  those 
of  the  Labyrinthodonts"  read  to  this  society  in  August,  and 
published  in  Silliman's  Journal  in  October,  1843,  was  impor- 
tant and  timely.  In  it  he  demonstrated  that  the  Labyrinthine 
structure  of  the  teeth,  considered  at  the  time  to  be  peculiar  to 
certain  sauroid  reptiles,  equally  belong  to  gar-fishes,  and  con- 
sequently that  many  fossil  teeth  which  had  been  referred  by 
the  evidence  of  this  character  alone  to  a  group  of  reptiles 
founded  upon  this  peculiarity,  might  as  well  belong  to  ancient 
sauroid  fishes. 

Although  not  of  any  importance  now  to  remember,  I  may 
here  mention  his  report  to  this  society  on  the  Hydrachos 
Sillimani  of  Koch,  a  factitious  Saurian  of  huge  length,  suc- 
cessfully exhibited  in  New  York  and  elsewhere  under  high 
auspices,  and  I  think  also  in  Germany,  but  which  Dr.  Wyman 
exposed  at  sight,  showing  that  it  was  made  up  of  an  indefinite 
number  of  various  cetaceous  vertebrae,  belonging  to  many  in- 
dividuals, which  (as  was  afterward  ascertained)  were  collected 
from  several  localities. 

But  the  memoir  by  which  Professor  Wyman  assured  his 
position  among  the  higher  comparative  anatomists  was  that 
communicated  to  and  published  by  this  society  in  the  summer 
of  1847,  in  which  the  Gorilla  was  first  named  and  introduced 
to  the  scientific  world,  and  the  distinctive  structure  and  affini- 
ties of  the  animal  so  thoroughly  made  out  from  the  study  of 
the  skeleton,  that  there  was,  as  the  great  English  anatomist 
remarked,  "  very  little  left  to  add,  and  nothing  to  correct." 
In  this  memoir  the  "  Description  of  the  habits  of  Troglodytes 


JEFFRIES   WYMAN.  387 

Gorilla  "  is  by  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Savage,  to  whom,  along  with 
Dr.  Wilson,  "  belongs  the  credit  of  the  discovery  : "  the 
Osteology  of  the  same  and  the  introductory  history  are  by  Dr. 
Wyman.  Indeed,  nearly  all  since  made  known  of  the  Go- 
rilla's structure,  and  of  the  affinities  soundly  deduced  there- 
from, has  come  from  our  associate's  subsequent  papers, 
founded  on  additional  crania  brought  to  hiin  in  1849,  by  Dr. 
George  A.  Perkins  of  Salem  ;  on  a  nearly  entire  male  skele- 
ton of  unusual  size,  received  in  1852  from  the  Rev.  William 
Walker,  and  now  in  Wyman's  museum  :  and  on  a  large  col- 
lection of  skins  and  skeletons  placed  at  his  disposal  in  1859, 
by  Du  Chaillu,  along  with  a  young  Gorilla  in  spirits,  which 
he  dissected.  It  is  in  the  account  of  this  dissection  that  Pro- 
fessor Wyman  brings  out  the  curious  fact  that  the  skull  of 
the  young  Gorilla  and  Chimpanzee  bears  closer  resemblance 
to  the  adult  than  to  the  infantile  human  cranium. 

In  Professor  Wyman 's  library,  bound  up  with  a  quarto  copy 
of  the  Memoir  by  Dr.  Savage  and  himself,  is  a  terse  but  com- 
plete history  of  this  subject,  in  his  neat  and  clear  handwrit- 
ing, and  with  copies  of  the  letters  of  Dr.  Savage,  Professor 
Owen,  Mr.  Walker,  and  M.  du  Chaillu. 

In  the  introductory  part  of  the  Memoir,  Professor  Wyman 
states  that  "the  specific  name.  Gorilla,  has  been  adopted,  a 
term  used  by  Hanno  in  describing  wild  men  found  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  probably  one  of  the  species  of  the  Orang." 
The  name  Troglodytes  Gorilla  is  no  doubt  to  be  cited  as  <»f 
Savage  and  Wyman,  and  it  was  happily  chosen  by  Professor 
Wyman,  after  consultation  with  his  friend,  the  late  Dr.  A.  A. 
Gould,  for  the  reason  just  stated.  But  it  is  interesting  to  Bee, 
in  the  correspondence  before  me,  how  strenuously  each  of  the 
joint  authors  deferred  to  the  other  the  honor  of  nomenclature. 
Dr.  Savage  from  first  to  last  insists,  in  repeated  and  emphatic 
terms,  that  the  scientific  name  shall  be  given  by  Dr.  Wyman 
as  the  scientific  describer,  and  that  he  could  not  himself  hon- 
estly appropriate  it.  Professor  Wyman  in  his  MS.  account. 
after  mentioning  what  his  portion  of  the  Memoir  was.  and 
that "  the  determination  of  the  differentia]  characters  on  which 
the  establishment  of  the  species  rests  was  prepared  by  me." 


388  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

briefly  and  characteristically  adds :  "  In  view  of  this  last  fact, 
Dr.  Savage  thought,  as  will  be  seen  in  his  letter,  that  the  spe- 
cies should  stand  in  my  name ;  but  this  I  declined." 

This  Memoir  was  read  before  this  society  on  the  18th  of 
August,  1847,  and  was  published  before  the  close  of  the  year. 
But  it  had  not,  as  it  appears,  come  to  Professor  Owen's  knowl- 
edge when  the  latter  presented  to  the  London  Zoological  Soci- 
ety, on  the  22d  of  February,  1848,  a  memoir  founded  on  three 
skulls  of  the  same  species,  just  received  from  Africa  through 
Captain  Wagstaff.  When  Professor  Owen  received  the  earlier 
memoir,  he  wrote  to  compliment  Professor  Wyman  upon  it, 
substituted  in  a  supplementary  note  the  specific  name  imposed 
by  Savage  and  Wyman,  and  reprinted  in  an  appendix  the 
osteological  characters  set  forth  by  the  latter.  "  It  does  not 
appear,  however  [adds  Dr.  Wyman], either  in  the  Proceed- 
ings or  the  Transactions  of  the  [Zoological]  Society,  at  what 
time  our  Memoir  was  published,  nor  that  we  had  anticipated 
him  in  our  description." 

It  is  safe  to  assert  that  in  this  and  the  subsidiary  papers  of 
Dr.  Wyman  may  be  found  the  substance  of  all  that  has  since 
been  brought  forward,  bearing  upon  the  osteological  resem- 
blances and  differences  between  men  and  apes.  After  sum- 
ming up  the  evidence  he  concludes  :  — 

"  The  organization  of  the  anthropoid  Quadrumana  justifies 
the  naturalist  in  placing  them  at  the  head  of  the  brute  crea- 
tion and  placing  them  in  a  position  in  which  they,  of  all  the 
animal  series,  shall  be  nearest  to  man.  Any  anatomist,  how- 
ever, who  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  the  skeletons  of  the 
Negro  and  Orang,  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  at  sight  with  the 
wide  gap  which  separates  them.  The  difference  between  the 
cranium,  the  pelvis,  and  the  conformation  of  the  upper  ex- 
tremities of  the  Negro  and  Caucasian,  sinks  into  comparative 
insignificance  when  compared  with  the  vast  difference  which 
exists  between  the  conformation  of  the  same  parts  in  the 
Negro  and  the  Orang.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied,  however 
wide  the  separation,  that  the  Negro  and  Orang  do  afford  the 
points  where  man  and  the  brute,  when  the  totality  of  their 
organization  is  considered,  most  nearly  approach  each  other." 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  389 

Selecting  now  for  further  comment  only  some  of  the  more 
noticeable  contributions  to  science,  we  should  not  pass  by  his 
investigations  of  the  anatomy  of  the  blind  fish  of  the  Mam- 
moth Cave.  The  series  began  in  that  prolific  year,  1843,  with 
a  paper  published  in  Silliman's  Journal,  and  closed  with  an 
article  in  the  same  Journal  in  1854.  Although  Dr.  Fell- 
kamph  had  preceded  him  in  ascertaining  the  existenee  of  ru- 
dimentary eyes  and  the  special  development  of  the  fifth  pair 
of  nerves,  yet  for  the  whole  details  of  the  subjeet,  and  the 
minute  anatomy,  we  are  indebted  to  Professor  A\  \ man.  Many 
of  the  details,  however,  as  well  as  the  admirable  drawings 
illustrating  them,  remained  unpublished  until  1872,  when  he 
placed  them  at  Mr.  Putnam's  disposal,  and  they  were  brought 
out  in  his  elaborate  article  in  the  "American  Naturalist.*" 
Here  the  extraordinary  development  of  tactile  sense,  taking 
the  place  of  vision,  and  perfectly  adapting  the  animal  to  its 
subterranean  life,  is  completely  demonstrated. 

If  Professor  Wyman's  first  piece  of  anatomical  work  was 
the  preparation  of  a  skeleton  of  a  bull-frog,  in  his  under- 
graduate days,  his  most  elaborate  memoir  is  that  on  the 
anatomy  of  the  nervous  system  of  the  same  auimal  {I!<ni<i 
j)ipiens~),  published  in  the  "  Smithsonian  Contributions,"  in 
1852. 

Anything  like  an  analysis  of  this  capital  investigation  and 
exposition  would  much  overpass  our  limits.  For,  although 
the  special  task  he  assigns  to  himself  is  the  description  of  the 
nervous  system  of  a  single  Batrachian,  chiefly  of  its  peripheral 
portion,  and  of  the  changes  undergone  during  metamorphosis, 
he  is  led  on  to  the  consideration  of  several  abstruse  or  contro- 
verted questions;  —  such,  for  instance,  as  the  attempts  that 
have  been  made  to  homologize  the  nervous  system  of  Articu- 
lates with  that  of  Vertebrates,  upon  which  he  has  some  acute 
criticism;  —  the  theories  that  have  been  propounded  respect- 
ing the  functions  of  the  cerebellum  and  its  relation  to  locomo- 
tion, which  he  tests  in  a  characteristic  way  by  a  direct  appeal 
to  facts  ;  —  the  supposition  of  ( Juvier  that  the  special  enlarge- 
ments of  the  spinal  cord  are  in  proportion  to  the  force  of  the 
respective    limbs    supplied    therefrom;   which   lie  controverts 


390  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

decisively  by  similar  appeal,  an  extract  from  which  I  beg 
leave  to  append  in  a  note.1 

So,  in  describing  the  structure  of  the  optic  nerves  in  the 
frog,  and  the  development  of  the  eye  and  optic  lobes,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  remark :  — 

"  The  instances  of  Proteus  and  Amblyopsis  naturally  sug- 
gest the  questions,  whether  one  and  the  same  part  may  not 
combine  functions  wholly  different  in  different  animals,  and 
whether  the  same  may  not  hold  true  with  regard  to  the  cere- 
bral organs  which  is  known  to  obtain  with  regard  to  the 
skeleton,  the  teeth,  the  tongue,  and  the  nose,  that  identical  or 
homologous  parts  in  different  animals  may  perform  functions 
wholly  distiuct.  If  the  doctrine  here  suggested  can  be  admitted 
(and  if  this  were  the  place,  facts  could  be  cited  in  support  of 
it),  may  we  not  find  in  it  an  explanation  of  many  inconsis- 
tencies which  now  exist  between  the  results  of  comparative 
anatomy  and  of  physiology  ?  " 

Then,  in  his  chapter  on  the  philosophical  anatomy  of  the 
cranial  nerves  and  skull,  after  showing  that  there  are  but  three 
pairs  of  cranio-spinal  nerves,  he  takes  up  the  controverted 
question  as  to  the  number  of  vertebrae  which  compose  the 

1  "  If  by  force  is  meant  the  muscular  energy  and  development  of  the 
limbs,  this  statement  does  not  appear  to  be  sustained  in  the  present  in- 
stance, nor  in  many  other  instances  brought  to  notice  by  comparative 
anatomy.  In  man  the  brachial  enlargement  is  always  larger  than  the 
crural,  though  the  legs  are  so  much  more  powerfully  developed  than  the 
arms,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  greater  number  of  mammals.  In  frogs 
there  is  a  still  greater  disproportion  between  legs  and  arms,  yet  there  is 
not  a  corresponding  difference  in  the  size  of  the  bulgings.  They  cannot, 
therefore,  be  said  to  be  in  proportion  to  the  muscular  force  only  of  the 
limbs,  but  correspond  far  more  nearly  to  the  acuteness  of  the  sense  of 
touch,  which  in  man  and  mammals  is  more  delicate  in  the  hands  and  arms 
than  in  the  legs  and  feet.  In  bats,  it  is  true  that  the  muscular  force  of 
the  arms  is  greater  than  that  of  the  legs,  and  that  the  brachial  far  sur- 
passes the  crural  enlargement  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  sense  of  touch 
in  the  membranes  of  the  wings  is  exalted  to  a  most  extraordinary  degree. 
In  birds  the  posterior  bulging  is  almost  universally  the  largest,  though 
this  condition  is  in  part  dependent  upon  the  presence  of  the  rhomboidal 
sinus.  In  these  animals,  while  the  muscular  energy  of  the  wings  is  the 
most  developed,  the  sensibility  of  the  feet  is  the  more  acute." 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  391 

skull,  and  supports  the  opinion  that  they  also  are  only  three 
in  a  characteristic  manner.1 

Of  this  whole  memoir  it  is  thought  that,  notwithstanding 
the  great  advance  which  has  been  made  in  comparative  ana- 
tomy during  the  twenty-live  years  which  have  elapsed  since 
it  was  published,  its  importance  to  the  student  has  not  at  all 
diminished. 

Next  to  this  in  extent  and  value  may  be  ranked  Professor 
Wyman's  paper  on  the  development  of  the  common  skate  of 
our  waters  (Raia  Batis),  communicated  to  the  American 
Academy  in  1804,  and  published  among  its  Memoirs.  It 
gives  an  account  of  the  peculiar  egg-case  of  the  Selachians, 
and  of  the  several  stages  of  the  development  of  the  embryo 
skate,  expressed  in  the  concise  and  clear  language  —  as  little 
technical  as  possible  —  for  which  he  was  distinguished,  and 
leading  up  to  not  a  few  problems  in  comparative  anatomy, 
morphology,  or  systematic  zoology, —  problems  which  Pro- 
fessor Wyman  never  evaded  when  they  came  directly  in  his 
way,  and  seldom  handled  without  making  some  real  contri- 
bution to  their  elucidation.  For  instance,  in  describing  the 
external  branchial  fringes  of  the  young  skate,  he  notes  the 
agreement  of  this  character  in  the  Batrachians ;  and  in 
studying  the   seven   branchial  fissures  of  the  embryo,  he  is 

1  "  The  conclusions  which  have  been  drawn  from  the  statements  made 
above  are  as  follows  :  that  in  frogs  the  vagus  comprises  the  glosso-pharyn- 
geal  and  accessory  nerves  ;  that  the  trigeminus  comprises  the  facial,  the 
ahducens  and  in  the  salamanders  the  patheticus  and  portions  of  the  motor 
communis  ;  that  other  evidence  sustains  the  hypothesis,  that  the  whole  of 
the  motor  communis  is  a  dependence  of  the  trigeminus  ;  if  to  these  we 
add  the  hypoglossus  (which  in  frogs  is  exceptionally  a  spinal  nerve),  we 
shall  have  three  pairs  of  cranial  nerves,  each  having  all  the  characters  <>t 
a  common  spinal  nerve,  namely,  motor  and  sensitive  roots  and  a  ganglion  ; 
that  there  are  no  nerves  to  indicate  a  fourth  vertebra,  unless  the  Bpecial 
sense  nerves  are  considered  ;  if  these  are  admitted  as  indications,  then  ire 
must  presuppose  either  two  pairs  of  nerves  to  each  vertebra,  or  the  exist- 
ence of  six  vertebra,  which  is  a  larger  number  than  can  be  accounted  for 
on  an  osteologieal  basis.  The  functions  and  mode  of  development  <>f  the 
special  sense  nerves  we  have  taken  as  affording  sufficient  grounds  for 
considering  them  as  of  a  peculiar  order,  and  not  t<>  be  classified  with  com- 
mon spinal  nerves." 


392  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

brought  into  contact  with  the  view  of  Huxley,  that  the  forma- 
tion of  the  external  ear  is  by  involution  of  the  integument. 
After  confirming  the  contrary  observations  of  Reichert  on  the 
embryo  pig,  he  concludes  that  "  the  first  of  the  seven  bran- 
chial fissures  of  the  embryo  skate  is  converted  into  the  spiracle, 
which  is  the  homologue  of  the  Eustachian  tube  and  the  outer 
ear-canal."  After  a  full  discussion  of  the  homology  of  the 
upper  jaw  in  sharks  and  skates,  under  the  light  afforded  by 
his  investigation  of  the  embryo  skate,  he  suggests  that  the 
cartilage  which  extends  from  the  olfactory  fossae  towards  the 
pectoral  fin  is  the  probable  homologue  of  a  maxillary  bone, 
and  that  in  the  lobe,  the  homologue  of  an  intermaxillary ; 
that,  if  so,  the  skates  and  proteiform  reptiles  agree  in  having 
the  nostrils  open  in  front  of  the  dental  arch ;  that  while  in 
all  Batrachians  the  nasal  groove  becomes  closed,  in  the  skate 
it  remains  permanently  open ;  and  finally,  that  this  view,  if 
confirmed,  "  will  add  another  feature  which  justifies  Owen, 
Agassiz,  and  others,  in  dissenting  from  Cuvier  so  far  as  to 
give  the  Selachians  a  place  in  the  zoological  series  higher  than 
that  of  the  bony  fishes.  But  at  the  same  time,  it  will  give 
corroborative  proof  of  the  correctness  of  Cuvier's  view,  that 
1  the  rudiments  of  the  maxillaries  and  intermaxillaries  .  .  . 
are  evident  in  the  skeleton.'  " 

In  attempting  these  analyses,  I  am  drifting  into  a  fault 
which  Professor  Wyman  never  committed,  that  of  being  too 
long.  So  I  must  leave  many  of  his  papers  unmentioned,  and 
barely  refer  to  two  or  three  others  which  cannot  be  passed 
over.  The  most  noteworthy  of  the  shorter  papers,  however, 
are  upon  less  technical  or  more  generally  interesting  topics, 
so  that  we  have  need  only  to  be  reminded  of  them.  Among 
them  are  his  "  Observations  on  the  Development  of  the  Suri- 
nam Toad,"  the  paper  on  Anableps  Gronovii,  and  that  "  On 
some  unusual  Modes  of  Gestation."  The  importance  of  these 
papers  lies,  not  in  being  accounts  of  some  of  the  most  striking 
curiosities  of  the  animal  world,  but  in  the  sagacity  and  quick- 
ness with  which  he  discerned,  and  the  clearness  with  which 
he  taught  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  them.  Any  good 
zoologist,  with  the  same  excellent  opportunities,  would  have 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  393 

worked  out  all  the  details  of  the  development  of  the  Suri- 
nam toads  in  the  skin  of  the  back  of  their  mother,  and  would 
equally  have  noted  the  morphological  significance  of  the 
branchiae  and  tail,  that  are  never  to  know  anything  of  the 
element  they  arc  adapted  for  ;  but  Dr.  Wyman  remarks  upon 
the  development  of  the  limbs  independently  of  the  vertebra] 
axis,  as  showing  that  whatever  view  be  taken  of  their  ho- 
mology, they  are  something  superadded  to  it,  and  nut  evolved 
from  it ;  he  notes  how  the  whole  yelk  mass  is  moulded  into 
a  spiral  intestine;  and  that  the  embryo  at  the  end  of  incu- 
bation forms  a  larger  and  heavier  mass  than  existed  in  the 
Qg<y  when  it  commenced,  —  showing  that  there  was  an  absorp- 
tion of  material  furnished  by  the  dermal  sac  of  the  mother, 
—  "a  solitary  instance  among  Batrachians,  if  not  among  rep- 
tiles generally,  in  which  the  embryo  is  nourished  at  the  ex- 
pense of  materials  derived  from  the  parent."  From  this  he 
is  led  (in  the  last  paper  above  mentioned )  to  infer  the  prob- 
ability that  the  developed  larvae  of  Hylodes  lineatus  —  car- 
ried about  inland  upon  the  back  of  their  mother,  and  destitute 
of  limbs  adapted  to  terrestrial  locomotion  —  may  depend 
upon  a  secretion  from  the  body  for  needful  sustenance,  —  an 
interesting  and  rudimentary  foreshadowing  of  mammalian 
life,  of  which  he  discerned  the  bearings. 

His  "Description  of  a  Double  Foetus"  (in  the  "  Boston 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,"  March,  1866)  gives  him  the 
opportunity  of  briefly  recording  some  of  the  results  of  his 
studies  of  the  development  of  double  monsters,  and  to  bring 
out  his  view,  that  "the  force,  whatever  it  be,  which  regulates 
the  symmetrical  distribution  of  matter  in  a  normal  or  abnor- 
mal embryo,  has  its  analogy,  if  anywhere,  in  those  known 
as  polar  forces;"  that,  "studying  the  subject  in  the  most 
general  manner,  there  are  striking  resemblances  between  the 
distribution  of  matter  capable  of  assuming  a  polar  condition, 
and  free  to  move  around  a  magnet,  and  the  distribution  <■{' 
matter  around  the  nervous  axis  of  an  embryo."  That  this  is 
not  one  of  those  vague  conceptions  by  which  many  speculators 
set  about  to  explain  that  of  which  tiny  know  little  by  means 
of   that  of   which   they   know  less,    but    that    lie   had   .striking 


394  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

parallelisms    to    adduce,    the    close    of    this    striking   paper 
shows. 

The  subject  of  fore  and  hind  symmetry,  thus  brought  directly 
under  notice,  had  been  broached  by  Dr.  Wyman  several  years 
before.  He  returned  to  it  the  year  following,  in  his  very  im- 
portant morphological  paper,  "  On  Symmetry  and  Homology 
in  Limbs,"  read  to  this  society  in  June,  1867,  and  published 
in  the  Proceedings  of  that  date.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
with  what  caution  and  restraint  he  handled  this  doctrine  of 
"  reversed  repetitions,"  which  has  since  been  freely  developed 
by  one  of  his  pupils  who  has  a  special  predilection  for  specu- 
lative morphology,  Professor  Burt  Wilder. 

Professor  Wyman's  "  Notes  on  the  Cells  of  the  Bee,"  in  the 
"  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  "  for  January,  1866, 
is  a  characteristic  specimen  of  his  way  of  coming  directly 
down  to  the  facts,  and  making  them  tell  their  own  story.  I 
could  not  recapitulate  his  results  much  more  briefly  than  he 
records  them  in  his  paper.  I  need  not  recall  to  you  how 
neatly  he  made  this  investigation,  and  represented  some  of  the 
results,  filling  the  comb  with  plaster-of-paris  and  then  cutting 
it  across  midway,  so  that  the  observations  might  be  made  and 
the  cells  measured  just  where  they  are  most  nearly  perfect ; 
and  then  printing  impressions  of  the  comb  upon  the  wood- 
block, he  reproduces  on  the  pages  of  his  article  the  exact 
outlines  of  the  cells,  with  all  their  irregularities  and  imper- 
fections. But  I  cannot  refrain  from  citing  a  portion  of  his 
remarks  at  the  close  :  — 

"  Here,  as  is  so  often  the  case  elsewdiere  in  nature,  the  type- 
form  is  an  ideal  one  :  and  with  this,  real  forms  seldom  or 
never  coincide.  .  .  .  An  assertion,  like  that  of  Lord 
Brougham,  that  there  is  in  the  cell  of  the  bee  '  perfect  agree- 
ment '  between  theory  and  observation,  in  view  of  the  analo- 
gies of  nature,  is  more  likely  to  be  wrong  than  right ;  and  his 
assertion  in  the  case  before  us  is  certainly  wrong.  Much 
error  would  have  been  avoided  if  those  who  have  discussed 
the  structure  of  the  bee's  cell  had  adopted  the  plan  followed 
by  Mr.  Darwin,  and  studied  the  habits  of  the  cell-making 
insects  comparatively,  beginning  with  the  cells  of  the  humble- 


JEFFRIES   WYMAN.  395 

bee,  following  with  those  of  wasps  and  hornets,  then  with  those 
of  the  Mexican  bees  (Melipona),  and  finally  with  those  of  the 
common  hive-bee.  In  this  way,  while  they  would  have  found 
that  there  is  a  constant  approach  to  the  perfect  form,  they 
wauld  at  the  same  time  have  been  prepared  for  the  fact,  that 
even  in  the  cell  of  the  hive-bee  perfection  is  not  reached.  The 
isolated  study  of  anything  in  natural  history  is  a  fruitful 
source  of  error." 

Let  me  add  to  this  important  aphorism  its  fellow,  which  I 
have  from  him,  but  know  not  if  he  ever  printed  it.  %-  No 
single  experiment  in  physiology  is  worth  anything" 

The  spirit  of  these  aphorisms  directed  all  his  work.  It  is 
well  exemplified  in  his  experimental  researches  —  the  Last 
which  I  can  here  refer  to  —  upon  "  The  formation  of  Infu- 
soria in  boiled  solutions  of  organic  matter,  inclosed  in  hermet- 
ically sealed  vessels  and  supplied  with  pure  air,"  and  its  sup- 
plement, "Observations  and  Experiments  on  Living  Organ- 
isms in  Heated  Water,"  published  in  the  "American  Journal 
of  Science  and  Arts,"  the  first  in  the  year  18G2,  the  other  in 
18G7.  Milne-Edwards  could  not  have  known  the  man,  when 
he  questioned  the  accuracy  of  the  first  series  because  they  do 
not  agree  with  those  of  Pasteur,  and  thought  the  difference 
in  the  results  depended  upon  a  defective  mode  of  conducting 
the  experiments.  As  Dr.  Wyman  remarks,  in  a  note  to  the 
second  series,  "the  recent  experiments  of  Dr.  Child  of  Ox- 
ford, and  those  reported  in  this  communication,  are  sufficient 
answer  to  the  criticisms  of  M.  Edwards."  Then,  as  to  his 
thoroughness,  most  persons  would  have  rested  on  the  results 
of  his  thirty-three  well-devised  experiments  proving  "thai  the 
boiled  solutions  of  organic  matter  made  use  of,  exposed  only  to 
air  which  has  passed  through  tubes  heated  t<>  redness,  became 
the  seat  of  infusorial  life;"  but  all  would  not  have  concluded 
that,  after  all,  they  "throw  but  little  light  on  the  immediate 
source  from  which  the  organisms  have  been  derived,'  nor 
would  many  have  closed  an  impartial  summary  of  the  oppos- 
ing views  iu  this  judicial  way  :  — 

"If,  on  the  one  hand,  it  is  urged  that  all  organisms,  in  so 
far  as  the  early  history  of  them    is  known,  are  thrived  from 


396  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

ova,  and  therefore  from  analogy  we  must  ascribe  a  similar 
origin  to  these  minute  beings  the  early  history  of  which  we  do 
not  know,  it  may  be  urged  with  equal  force,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  all  ova  and  spores,  in  so  far  as  we  know  anything 
about  them,  are  destroyed  by  prolonged  boiling  ;  therefore  from 
analogy  we  are  equally  bound  to  infer  that  Vibrios,  Bacteri- 
ans,  etc.,  could  not  have  been  derived  from  ova,  since  these 
would  have  all  been  destroyed  by  the  conditions  to  which  they 
have  been  subjected.  The  argument  from  analogy  is  as  strong 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other." 

Returning  to  the  subject  again  a  few  years  later,  with  a 
critical  series  of  twenty  experiments,  each  of  three,  five,  ten, 
fifteen,  or  even  twenty  flasks,  used  by  way  of  checks  and  com- 
parisons, —  a  rigorous  experimenter  would  have  been  satisfied 
when  he  had  proved  that  sealed  solutions  subjected  to  a  heat 
of  at  least  212°  for  from  one  to  four  hours,  became  the  seat 
of  infusorial  life,  at  least  of  such  as  Vibrios,  Bacterians,  and 
Monads,  while  all  infusoria  having  the  faculty  of  locomotion 
were  shown  by  a  special  series  of  experiments  to  lose  this  at 
a  temperature  of  120°  or  at  most  134°  Fahr.  But  Professor 
Wyman  carried  the  boiling  up  to  five  hours,  and  in  these 
flasks  no  infusoria  of  any  kind  appeared.  The  question  of 
abiogenesis  stands  to-day  very  much  where  Professor  Wyman 
left  it  seven  years  ago. 

I  must  omit  all  notice  of  the  ethnological  work  which  has 
occupied  his  later  years,  merely  referring  to  the  seven  annual 
"  Reports  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Ameri- 
can Archaeology  and  Ethnology,"  of  which  he  was  curator. 
The  last  of  these,  issued  just  before  the  writer's  death,  con- 
tain the  principal  results  of  his  investigations  of  the  human 
remains  he  collected  in  the  shell-heaps  of  east  Florida,  and 
convincing  evidence  of  the  cannibalism  of  those  who  made 
them.  A  fuller  memoir,  embodying  all  his  observations  of 
the  last  six  winters  upon  the  Florida  shell-mounds,  was  sent 
to  the  printer  just  before  he  died. 

The  thought  that  fills  our  minds  upon  a  survey  even  so  in- 
complete as  this  is  :  How  much  he  did,  how  well  he  did  it  all, 
and  how  simply  and  quietly  !     We  know  that  our  associate, 


JEFFRIES   WYMAN.  397 

though  never  hurried,  was  never  idle,  and  that  his  great  re- 
pose of  manner  covered  a  sustained  energy ;  but  I  suspect 
that  none  of  us,  without  searching  out  and  collecting  his  pub- 
lished papers,  had  adequately  estimated  their  number  and 
their  value.  There  is  nothing  forth-putting  about  them, 
nothing  adventitious,  never  even  a  phrase  to  herald  a  matter 
which  he  deemed  important. 

His  work  as  a  teacher  was  of  the  same  quality.  He  was 
one  of  the  best  lecturers  I  ever  heard,  although,  and  partly 
because,  he  was  most  unpretending.  You  never  thought  of  the 
speaker,  nor  of  the  gifts  and  acquisitions  which  such  clear 
exposition  were  calling  forth,  — only  of  what  he  was  simply 
telling  and  showing  you.  Then  to  those  who,  like  his  pupils 
and  friends,  were  in  personal  contact  with  him,  there  was  the 
added  charm  of  a  most  serene  and  sweet  temper.  He  was 
truthful  and  conscientious  to  the  very  core.  His  perfect  free- 
dom, in  lectures  as  well  as  in  writing,  and  no  less  so  in  daily 
conversation,  from  all  exaggeration,  false  perspective,  and 
factitious  adornment,  was  the  natural  expression  of  his  innate 
modesty  and  refined  taste,  and  also  of  his  reverence  for  the 
exact  truth. 

It  has  been  a  pleasure  to  learn,  from  former  college  students, 
who  hardly  ever  saw  him  except  in  the  lecture  room,  that  he 
gave  to  them  much  the  same  impression  of  his  gifts  and 
graces  and  sterling  worth,  that  he  gave  us  who  knew  him 
intimately  —  so  transparent  was  he  and  natural. 

With  all  his  quick  sense  of  justice,  and  no  lack  of  occasion 
for  controversy,  it  seemed  to  cost  him  no  effort  to  avoid  it 
altogether.  He  made  no  enemies,  and  was  surrounded  by 
troops  of  life-long  friends.  When  he  first  went  abroad,  in 
1841,  he  was  told  by  some  near  friends,  who  recognized  his 
promise,  that  a  chair  of  natural  history  in  his  alma  mater 
would  soon  have  to  be  filled,  and  that  he  should  be  presented 
as  a  candidate.  In  the  winter  following,  the  present  incum- 
bent, responding  to  an  invitation  to  visit  Boston,  which  he 
had  never  seen,  and  to  consider  if  he  would  be  a  candidate, 
then  first  heard  of  Wyman'a  name  and  his  friends1  expecta- 
tions or  hopes ;  whereupon  he  dismissed  the  subject  from  his 


398  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

mind.     Probably  he  felt  more  surprise  than  did  Dr.  Wyman 

when  notified,  a  few  months  afterward,  of  the  choice  of  the 
corporation.  The  exigencies  of  the  botanic  garden  probably 
overbore  other  considerations.  I  doubt  if  Dr.  Wyman  ever 
had  an  envious  feeling.  Certain  it  is  that  no  one  welcomed 
the  new  professor  with  truer  cordiality,  or  proved  himself  a 
more  constant  friend. 

In  these  days  it  is  sure  to  be  asked  how  an  anatomist,  phy- 
siologist, and  morphologist  like  Professor  Wyman  regarded 
the  most  remarkable  scientific  movement  of  his  time,  the  re- 
vival and  apparent  prevalence  of  doctrines  of  evolution.  As 
might  be  expected,  he  was  neither  an  advocate  or  an  opponent. 
He  was  not  one  of  those  persons  who  quickly  make  up  their 
minds,  and  announce  their  opinions,  with  a  confidence  in- 
versely proportionate  to  their  knowledge.  He  could  consider 
long,  and  hold  his  judgment  in  suspense.  How  well  he  could 
do  this  appears  from  an  early,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  his  only 
published  presentation  of  the  topic,  in  a  short  review  of 
Owen's  "  Monograph  of  the  Aye-Aye  "  (in  Am.  Journ.  Sci- 
ence, Sept.,  1863) — the  paper  in  which  Professor  Owen's 
acceptance  of  evolution,  but  not  of  natural  selection,  was 
promulgated.  Dr.  Wyman  compares  Owen's  view  with  that 
of  Darwin  (to  whom  he  had  already  communicated  interesting 
and  novel  illustrations  of  the  play  of  natural  selection)  ;  and 
he  adds  some  acute  remarks  upon  a  rather  earlier  speculation 
by  Mr.  Agassiz,  in  which  the  latter  suggests  that  the  species 
of  animals  might  have  been  created  as  eggs  rather  than  as 
adults.  He  states  the  case  between  the  two  general  views 
with  perfect  impartiality,  and  the  bent  of  his  own  mind  is 
barely  discernible.  In  due  time  he  satisfied  himself  as  to 
which  of  them  was  the  more  probable,  or,  in  any  case,  the 
more  fertile  h}rpothesis.  As  to  this  I  may  venture  to  take  the 
liberty  to  repeat  the  substance  of  a  conversation  which  I  had 
with  him  some  time  after  the  death  of  the  lamented  Agassiz, 
and  not  long  before  his  own.  I  report  the  substance  only, 
not  the  words. 

Agassiz  repeated  to  me,  he  said,  a  remark  made  to  him  by 
Humboldt,  to  the  effect  that  Cuvier  made  a  great  mistake, 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN.  399 

and  missed  a  great  opportunity,  when  he  took  the  side  he  did 
in  the  famous  controversy  with  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire  ;  he  should 
have  accepted  the  doctrines  of  morphology,  and  brought  his 
vast  knowledge  of  comparative  anatomy  and  zoology,  and 
his  unequaled  powers,  to  their  illustration.  Had  he  done  so, 
instead  of  gaining  by  his  superior  knowledge  some  temporary 
and  doubtful  victories  in  a  lost  cause,  his  preeminence  for  all 
our  time  would  have  been  assured  and  complete.  I  thought, 
continued  Wyman,  that  there  was  a  parallel  case  before  me, 
that  if  Agassiz  had  brought  his  vast  stores  of  knowledge  in 
zoology,  embryology,  and  palaeontology,  his  genius  for  mor- 
phology, and  all  his  quickness  of  apprehension  and  fertility  in 
illustration,  to  the  elucidation  and  support  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  progressive  development  of  species,  science  in  our  day 
would  have  gained  much,  some  grave  misunderstandings  been 
earlier  rectified,  and  the  permanent  fame  of  Agassiz  been 
placed  on  a  broader  and  higher  basis  even  than  it  is  now. 

Upon  one  point  Wyman  was  clear  from  the  beginning.  He 
did  not  wait  until  evolutionary  doctrines  were  about  to  pre- 
vail, before  he  judged  them  to  be  essentially  philosophical 
and  healthful,  "  in  accordance  with  the  order  of  nature  as 
commonly  manifested  in  her  works,"  and  that  they  need  not 
disturb  the  foundations  of  natural  theology. 

Perhaps  none  of  us  can  be  trusted  to  judge  of  such  a  ques- 
tion impartially,  upon  the  bare  merits  of  the  case  ;  but  Wy- 
man's  judgment  was  as  free  from  bias  as  that  of  any  one  I 
ever  knew.  Not  at  all,  however,  in  this  case  from  indifference 
or  unconcern.  He  was  not  only,  philosophically,  a  convinced 
theist,  in  all  hours  and  under  all  kk  variations  of  mood  and 
tense,"  but  personally  a  devout  man,  an  habitual  and  reverent 
attendant  upon  Christian  worship  and  ministrations. 

Those  of  us  who  attended  his  funeral  must  have  felt  the 
appropriateness  for  the  occasion  of  the  words  which  were 
there  read  from  the  Psalmist :  — 

"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament 
showeth  his  handy-work.  .  .  .  O  Lord,  how  manifold  arc  thy 
works!  In  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all:  the  earth  is 
full  of  thy  riches;  so  is  this  great  and  wide  sea,  wherein  are 


400  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

things  creeping  innumerable,  both  great  and  small  beasts. 
Thou  sendest  forth  thy  spirit,  they  are  created,  and  thou  re- 
newest  the  face  of  the  earth." 

These  are  the  works  which  our  associate  loved  to  investigate, 
and  this  the  spirit  in  which  he  contemplated  them.  Not  less 
apposite  were  the  Beatitudes  that  followed : 

"  Blessed  are  the  meek ;  blessed  are  the  peace-makers ; 
blessed  are  the  merciful;  blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart." 

Those  who  knew  him  best,  best  know  how  well  he  exempli- 
fied them. 


DANIEL   HANBURY.1 

Not  long  ago  we  called  attention  to  a  most  valuable  book, 
the  "  Pharmacographia,  a  History  of  Drugs,"  by  Professor 
Fliickiger  of  Strasburg  and  Daniel  Hanbury  of  London,  the 
first-fruits  of  much  investigation,  the  precursor,  as  was  hoped, 
of  more  extended  similar  works  by  the  English  author.  We 
have  now  sadly  to  record  the  decease  of  Mr.  Hanbury,  of 
enteric  typhoid,  on  the  24th  of  March,  at  his  residence  on 
Clapham  Common,  in  the  fiftieth  .year  of  his  age.  The  obit- 
uary and  biographical  notices  which  have  appeared  in  the 
London  scientific  journals  and  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
learned  societies,  as  well  as  loving  individual  tributes  to  an 
endeared  memory,  have  given  expression  to  the  loss  which  has 
been  sustained,  and  delineated  the  outlines  of  a  most  worthy 
and  winning  character.  The  loss  is  deplored,  personally  and 
scientifically,  over  wider  circles  and  on  this  side  of  the  Atlan- 
tic. The  pupil  and  friend  of  Pareira  and  his  successor  in  his 
line  of  work,  an  adept  in  pharmaceutical  knowledge,  a  keen 
botanist,  and  a  most  assiduous  and  conscientious  investigator, 
a  man  of  simple  and  pure  tastes,  and  happily  of  sufficient 
means,  he  had  just  withdrawn  wholly  from  business  in  the 
noted  house  in  which  he  had  an  inherited  share,  so  that  lie 
might  devote  his  powers  and  acquisitions  without  distraction 
to  the  natural  history  of  drugs  and  useful  vegetable  products. 
He  had  already  done  much  :  more  than  sixty  articles  were  con- 
tributed by  him  to  a  single  journal,  the  editor  of  which  de- 
clares that  "the  quality  of  what  he  did  was  almost  faultless," 
that  "he  never  wrote  without  having  original  information  to 
impart,  and  his  papers  uniformly  bear  evidence  of  careful 
investigation  and  thorough  knowledge."  The  Transactions 
and  Journal  of  the  Linniean  Society  (of  which  he  was  repeat- 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  ix.  47(5.      (187o.) 


402  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

edly  a  councilor  and  the  treasurer  at  the  time  of  his  death) 
contain  several  of  his  papers.  His  first  published  paper, 
"On  Turnsole,"  appeared  in  1850;  his  latest,  on  the  "Coun- 
tess Chinchon  and  the  Cinchona  Genus,"  appeared,  since  his 
death,  in  "The  Academy"  of  the  3d  of  April.  An  ardent 
botanist  and  lover  of  plants,  he  traveled  much  in  the  south  of 
Europe,  accompanied  Dr.  Hooker  in  his  explorations  of  Leb- 
anon, and  took  an  active  interest  especially  in  the  introduction 
of  officinal  plants  and  in  ornamental  cultivation.  With  one 
villa-garden  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  —  that  of  his 
brother  at  Mortola  —  his  memory  to  us  is  indelibly  associated. 
Although  remarkably  self-reliant,  Mr.  Hanbury  was  the  oppo- 
site of  self -asserting  or  ambitious;  but  his  sterling  worth  was 
soon  recognized  by  the  principal  learned  societies  and  associa- 
tions. He  was  early  chosen  into  the  Royal  Society  and  served 
upon  its  council  in  1873.  Born  and  educated  in  the  Society 
of  Friends,  he  remained  a  devout  and  attached  member  of  it, 
while  the  graces  and  the  goodness  of  his  character  endeared 
him  to  all  who  knew  him.  With  the  sense  of  personal  loss 
his  scientific  comrades  mingle  deep  regrets  that  a  career  of 
unusual  usefulness  and  promise  is  cut  short,  and  that  in  a  line 
in  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  he  leaves  no  successor.  Hanburia 
Mexicana,  a  striking  Cucurbitaceous  genus,  commemorated 
his  services  to  botany. 


ALEXANDER   BRAUN.1 

We  announce  with  sorrow  the  death  of  this  excellent  bota- 
nist, which  took  place  in  Berlin,  on  the  29th  of  March,  after  a 
short  illness.  Systematic  botanists  of  the  first  class  arc  every- 
where rare,  and  especially  in  Germany,  where  they  have  gone 
out  of  fashion,  all  attention  being  turned  to  histology  and  the 
like.  In  Braun's  earlier  days  there  was  a  goodly  array  of 
systematic  botanists  in  Germany  ;  at  his  decease  there  are 
very  few  of  mark,  although  signs  of  revival  are  apparent. 
Alexander  Braun  was  born  at  Ratisbon,  May  10,  1805,  but 
was  brought  up  at  Carlsruhe,  where  his  father  became  a  trusted 
officer  in  the  post-office  department.  Fifty  years  ago  there 
was  a  knot  of  closely  -  allied  students  at  the  university  of 
Heidelberg,  consisting  of  Braun,  Carl  Schimper,  Agassiz,  and 
Engelmann.  Two  of  them  were  transferred  to  our  own  soil ; 
the  latter  is  now  the  sole  survivor.  Three  of  them  went 
soon  to  Munich,  where  Oken,  Schelling,  Dollinger.  and  Mar- 
tius  were  teaching ;  but  Braun,  Agassiz,  and  Engelmann  met 
again  as  fellow  -  students  at  Paris  in  1832.  The  first  two 
became  allied  afterwards  by  the  marriage  of  Agassiz  with 
Braun's  sister.  About  the  time  that  Dr.  Engelmann  came  to 
the  United  States,  Braun  was  made  professor  of  botany  and 
zoology  in  the  Polytechnic  School  of  Carlsruhe.  In  1840  he 
took  the  chair  of  botany  in  the  university  of  Freiburg  in  the 
Breisgau  ;  was  transferred  to  Giessen  in  1850  ;  but  in  the 
spring  of  1851  was  called  to  Berlin,  as  the  successor  to  Link 
and  Kunth,  taking  charge  of  the  botanic  garden  as  well  as  of 
the  professorship.  Although  he  had  nearly  reached  the  age  of 
seventy-two,  and  felt  the  full  weight  of  his  years,  yet  li<'  waa 
assiduously  attending  to  his  official  duties  when  he  was  sud- 
denly prostrated  by  acute  disease  of  the  chest,   terminating 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xiii.  471.     (1877.) 


404  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

fatally.  Although  learned  in  almost  every  department  of  his 
science,  his  forte,  like  that  of  Agassiz,  was  morphology,  and 
his  systematic  work  mainly  among  the  higher  and  some  of  the 
lower  Cryptogamia,  Marsilia,  Isoetes,  Chara,  etc.  Although  his 
communications  to  the  scientific  journals  began  as  early  as 
the  year  1822,  when  he  was  only  seventeen  years  old,  his 
first  contribution  to  science,  of  much  extent  and  of  high  and 
permanent  value,  was  his  memoir  on  the  arrangement  of  the 
scales  of  Pine-cones,  etc.,  published  in  1830.  With  this  pub- 
lication began  the  present  knowledge  of  phyllotaxis.  It  is 
well  understood  that  the  first  steps  were  taken  by  his  fellow- 
student  Carl  Schimper,  and  that  the  early  investigations  were 
pursued  in  common  by  the  two.  But  Schimper  published 
nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  either  then  or  since,  although  he 
lived  until  the  year  1867.  His  name  in  connection  with  the 
subject  is  preserved  by  the  favorable  mention  of  his  compan- 
ions and  contemporaries  ;  but  Braun's  treatise  was  timely  and 
fruitful,  and  became  classical.  Braun's  ability  for  the  philo- 
sophical treatment  of  vegetable  morphology  and  development 
was  manifested  in  his  next  large  paper,  namely,  in  his  me- 
moir entitled  "  Rejuvenescence  in  Nature,"  especially  in  the 
life  and  development  of  plants.  This  was  first  published  at 
Freiburg  in  1849-50,  and  again  at  Leipsic  in  1851,  and  an 
English  translation  of  it  was  published  by  the  Ray  Society  in 
1853.  Of  a  similar  character,  and  marked  with  equal  acute- 
ness,  is  his  essay  on  "  The  Vegetable  Individual  in  its  relation 
to  Species,"  etc.,  published  in  1853,  at  Berlin,  and  which,  in  a 
translation  by  a  pupil  of  mine,  was  mainly  reproduced  in  this 
Journal  (May  and  September,  1855).  He  reaches  the  con- 
clusion —  which  would  now  be  more  confidently  expressed  — 
"  that  the  individual  appears  in  its  full  import  only  in  the 
higher  steps  of  the  series  of  created  beings." 

In  his  systematical  work,  Braun  was  exceedingly  laborious, 
persevering,  and  conscientious.  When  we  add  that  through- 
out the  riper  and  what  should  have  been  the  most  productive 
years  of  his  life,  he  was  overtasked  with  official  duties  and 
cares,  we  shall  not  wonder  that  much  which  he  hoped  to  ac- 
complish is  left  undone.     His  work  upon  Marsilia,  Pilularia, 


ALEXANDER  BRAUN.  405 

and  Isoetes  may  be  essentially  complete.  But  his  prolonged 
studies  of  Chara,  which  began  forty  years  ago,  and  the  com- 
pletion  of  which  would  have  crowned  his  career,  have  prob- 
ably not  been  finished,  or  brought  into  such  form  that  the 
results  may  be  fully  secured. 

His  influence  as  a  teacher  is  said  to  have  been  great  •  as 
an  investigator  he  stood  in  the  first  rank  among  the  botanists 
of  our  time  ;  as  a  man,  his  simple,  earnest,  and  transparently 
truthful  character  won  the  admiration  and  love  of  all  who 
knew  him. 


CHARLES   PICKERING.1 

Charles  Pickering,  M.  D.,  died  in  Boston,  of  pneumonia, 
on  the  17th  of  March,  1878,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  of  a  noted  New  England  stock,  being  a  grand- 
son of  Colonel  Timothy  Pickering,  a  member  of  Washington's 
military  family,  and  of  his  first  cabinet  as  President ;  and  he 
was  elected  into  this  Academy  under  the  presidency  of  his 
uncle,  John  Pickering.  He  was  born  on  Starucca  Creek,  on 
the  Upper  Susquehanna,  in  the  northern  part  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, at  a  settlement  made  on  a  grant  of  land  taken  up  by  his 
grandfather,  who  then  resided  there.  His  father,  Timothy 
Pickering,  Jr.,  died  at  the  age  of  thirty  years,  leaving  to  the 
care  of  the  mother  —  who  lived  to  a  good  old  age  —  the  two 
sons,  Charles  and  his  brother  Edward,  who  were  much  united 
in  their  earlier  and  later  lives,  and  were  not  long  divided  in 
death,  the  subject  of  this  notice  having  been  for  only  a  year 
the  survivor. 

Dr.  Pickering  was  a  member  of  the  class  of  1823  at  Har- 
vard College,  but  left  before  graduation.  He  studied  medi- 
cine, and  took  the  degree  of  M.  D.  at  the  Harvard  Medical 
School  in  1826.  Living  in  these  earlier  years  at  Salem,  he 
was  associated  with  the  late  William  Oakes  in  botanical  ex- 
ploration ;  and  it  is  believed  that  the  two  first  explored  the 
White  Mountains  together,  following  in  the  steps  of  the  first 
botanist  to  ascend  Mount  Washington,  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler 
of  Essex  County,  and  of  Francis  Boott  and  the  still  surviving 
Dr.  Bigelow.  His  taste  for  natural  history  showed  itself  in 
boyhood,  both  for  botany  and  zoology,  and  probably  decided 
his  choice  of  a  profession.  He  may  have  intended  to  practise 
medicine  for  a  livelihood,  when,  about  the  year  1829,  he  took 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  xiii. 
414.     (1878.) 


CHARLES  PICKERING.  407 

up  his  residence  at  Philadelphia  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  he 
was  attracted  thither  more  by  the  facilities  that  city  offered 
for  the  pursuit  of  natural  history  than  by  its  renown  as  a  cen- 
tre of  medical  education.  We  soon  find  him  acting  as  one  of 
the  curators  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  also  as 
librarian,  and  with  reputation  established  as  the  most  erudite 
and  sharp-sighted  of  all  the  young  naturalists  of  that  region. 
His  knowledge  then,  as  in  mature  years,  was  encyclopaedic 
and  minute  ;  and  his  bent  was  toward  a  certain  subtlety  and 
exhaustiveness  of  investigation,  which  is  characteristic  of  his 
later  writings.  Still,  in  those  days  in  which  he  was  looked  up 
to  as  an  oracle,  and  consulted  as  a  dictionary  by  his  co-work- 
ers, he  had  published  nothing  which  can  now  be  recalled, 
except  a  brief  essay  on  the  geographical  distribution  and 
leading  characteristics  of  the  United  States  flora,  which  very 
few  of  our  day  have  ever  seen. 

When  the  United  States  surveying  and  exploring  expedi- 
tion to  the  South  Seas,  which  sailed  under  command  of  then 
Lieutenant  Charles  Wilkes  in  the  autumn  of  1838,  was  first 
organized  under  Commodore  T.  Ap-Catesby  Jones,  about  two 
years  before,  Dr.  Pickering's  reputation  was  such  that  lie  was 
at  once  selected  as  the  principal  zoologist.  Subsequently,  as 
the  plan  expanded,  others  were  added.  Yet  the  scientific 
fame  of  that  expedition  most  largely  rests  upon  the  collections 
and  the  work  of  Dr.  Pickering  and  his  surviving  associate, 
Professor  Dana,  the  latter  taking,  in  addition  to  the  geology, 
the  Corals  and  the  Crustacea,  other  special  departments  of 
zoology  being  otherwise  provided  for  by  the  accession  of  Mr. 
Couthouy  and  Mr.  Peale.  Dr.  Pickering,  although  retain- 
ing the  ichthyology,  particularly  turned  his  attention  during 
the  three  and  a  half  years'  voyage  of  circumnavigation  to 
anthropology,  and  to  the  study  of  the  geographical  distribu- 
tion of  animals  and  plants;  to  the  latter  especially  affected  by 
or  as  evidence  of  the  operations,  movements,  and  diffusion  of 
the  races  of  man.  To  these,  the  subjects  of  his  predilections 
and  to  investigations  bearing  upon  them,  all  his  remaining 
life  was  assiduously  devoted.  The  South  Pacific  exploring 
expedition    visited    very   various  parts  of  the   world ;  but    it 


408  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

necessarily  left  out  regions  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  an- 
thropological investigator,  those  occupied  in  early  times  by  the 
race  to  which  we  belong,  and  by  the  peoples  with  which  the 
Aryan  race  has  been  most  in  contact.  Desirous  to  extend  his 
personal  observations  as  far  as  possible,  Dr.  Pickering,  a  year 
after  the  return  of  the  expedition,  and  at  his  own  charges, 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  visited  Egypt,  Arabia,  the  eastern  part 
of  Africa,  and  western  and  northern  India.  Then,  in  1848, 
he  published  his  volume  on  "  The  Races  of  Man,  and  their 
Geographical  Distribution,"  being  the  ninth  volume  of  the 
"  Reports  of  the  Wilkes'  Exploring  Expedition."  Some  time 
afterward,  he  prepared,  for  the  fifteenth  volume  of  this  series, 
an  extensive  work  on  the  "  Geographical  Distribution  of  Ani- 
mals and  Plants."  But,  in  the  course  of  the  printing,  the  ap- 
propriations by  Congress  intermitted  or  ceased,  and  the  pub- 
lication of  the  results  of  the  celebrated  expedition  was  sus- 
pended. Publication  it  could  hardly  be  called  :  for  Congress 
printed  only  one  hundred  copies,  in  a  sumptuous  form,  for 
presentation  to  states  and  foreign  courts ;  and  then  the  sev- 
eral authors  were  allowed  to  use  the  types  and  copperplates 
for  printing  as  many  copies  as  they  required,  and  could  pay 
for.  Under  this  privilege,  Dr.  Pickering  brought  out  in  1854 
a  small  edition  of  the  first  part  of  his  essay, —  perhaps  the 
most  important  part,  —  and  in  1876  a  more  bulky  portion, 
"On  Plants  and  Animals  in  their  Wild  State,"  which  is 
largely  a  transcript  of  the  note-book  memoranda  as  jotted 
down  at  the  time  of  observation  or  collection. 

These  are  all  his  publications,  excepting  some  short  com- 
munications to  scientific  journals  and  the  proceedings  of 
learned  societies  to  which  he  belonged.  But  he  is  known  to 
have  been  long  and  laboriously  engaged  upon  a  work  for 
which,  under  his  exhaustive  treatment,  a  lifetime  seems  hardly 
sufficient ;  a  digest,  in  fact,  of  all  that  is  known  of  all  the 
animals  and  plants  with  which  civilized  man  has  had  to  do 
from  the  earliest  period  traceable  by  records.  When  Dr. 
Pickering  died,  he  wras  carrying  this  work  through  the  press 
at  his  own  individual  expense,  had  already  in  type  five  or  six 
hundred  quarto  pages,  and  it  is  understood  that  the  remainder, 


CHARLES  PICKERING.  409 

of  about  equal  extent,  is  ready  for  the  printer.  This  formi- 
dable treatise  is  entitled  "  Man's  Record  of  his  own  Exist- 
ence." Its  character  is  indicated  in  the  brief  introductory 
sentences :  — 

"  In  the  distribution  of  species  over  the  globe,  the  order  of 
Nature  has  been  obscured  through  the  interference  of  man. 
He  has  transported  animals  and  plants  to  countries  where 
they  were  previously  unknown  ;  extirpating  the  forest  and 
cultivating  the  soil,  until  at  length  the  face  of  the  globe  itself 
is  changed.  To  ascertain  the  amount  of  this  interference, 
displaced  species  must  be  distinguished,  and  traced  each  to 
its  original  home.  Detached  observations  have  already  been 
given  in  the  twenty-first  and  succeeding  chapters  of  my 
'  Races  of  Man '  ;  but  when  such  observations  are  extended 
to  all  parts  of  the  globe,  the  accumulated  facts  require  some 
plan  of  arrangement.  A  list  will  naturally  assume  the 
chronological  order,  beginning  with  Egypt,  the  country  that 
contains  the  earliest  records  of  the  human  family,  and  reced- 
ing geographically  from  the  same  central  point  of  reference. " 

Then,  starting  with  "  4713  B.  C,"  and  "  4491  B.  C,  be- 
ginning of  the  first  Great  Year  in  the  Egyptian  reckoning," 
he  begins  the  list,  which,  under  the  running  heading  of 
"Chronological  Arrangement  of  Accompanying  Animals  and 
Plants,"  first  treats  of  the  vegetables  and  animals  mentioned 
in  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  of  the  "  Commencement  of  Be- 
douin or  Nomadic  Life  in  the  Desert ; "  passes  to  the  "  Colo- 
nization of  Egypt,"  and  to  critical  notices  (philological  and 
natural-historical)  of  its  plants  and  animals,  as  well  their  ear- 
liest mention  as  their  latest  known  migrations  ;  reaches  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era  at  about  the  470th  page  :  and 
so  proceeds,  till  our  wonder  at  the  patience  and  the  erudition 
of  the  writer  passes  all  bounds.  AVe  are  ready  to  agree  with 
a  biographer  who  declares  that  our  associate  was  M  ;i  living 
encyclopaedia  of  knowledge,"  —  that  there  never  was  a  natu- 
ralist "  who  had  made  more  extended  and  minute  original 
explorations ; "  and  we  fully  agree  that  M  no  one  ever  had  less 
a  passion  or  a  gift  for  display  ;  "  "  that  he  was  engaged  dur- 
ing a  long  life  in  the  profoundest  studies,  asking  neither  fame 


410  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

nor  money,  nor  any  other  reward,  but  simply  the  privilege  of 
gaining  knowledge  and  of  storing  it  up  in  convenient  forms 
for  the  service  of  others  ;  "  that  "  the  love  of  knowledge  was 
the  one  passion  of  his  life,"  and  that  "  he  asked  no  richer 
satisfaction  than  to  search  for  it  as  for  hidden  treasure."  He 
was  singularly  retiring  and  reticent,  very  dry  in  ordinary 
intercourse,  but  never  cynical ;  delicate  and  keen  in  percep- 
tion and  judgment ;  just,  upright,  and  exemplary  in  every 
relation ;  and  to  those  who  knew  him  well  communicative, 
sympathetic,  and  even  genial.  In  the  voyage  of  circumnavi- 
gation he  was  the  soul  of  industry,  and  a  hardy  explorer. 
The  published  narrative  of  the  commander  shows  that  he  took 
a  part  in  every  fatiguing  excursion  or  perilous  ascent.  Per- 
haps the  most  singular  peril  (recorded  in  the  narrative)  was 
that  in  which  this  light-framed  man  once  found  himself  on 
the  Peruvian  Andes,  when  he  was  swooped  upon  by  a  condor, 
evidently  minded  to  carry  off  the  naturalist  who  was  contem- 
plating the  magnificent  ornithological  specimen. 

Dr.  Pickering  married  in  the  year  1851,  and  leaves  a  widow, 
but  no  children  to  inherit  his  honored  name. 


ELIAS   MAGNUS   FRIES.1 

Elias  Magnus  Fries  died  at  Upsal  on  February  8,  in 
the  eighty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  five  months  after  the  cele- 
bration, in  which  he  was  able  to  take  some  part,  of  the  four 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  that  university, 
and  a  month  after  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  death  of 
Linnaeus.  Born,  as  was  Linnaeus,  in  Smoland,  a  southern 
province  of  Sweden,  and  like  him  called  in  middle  age  to  the 
renowned  Scandinavian  university,  he  might  be  regarded  as 
the  most  distinguished  of  Linnaeus's  successors,  except  for  the 
fact  that  he  did  not  occupy  the  chair  of  Linnaeus  ;  for  when, 
more  than  forty  years  ago,  Fries,  then  demonstrator  of  bot- 
any at  Lund,  was  called  to  Upsal,  Wahlenberg  was  in  the 
botanical  chair,  and  Fries  was  made  professor  of  practical 
economy.  His  son,  however,  by  the  retirement  of  Areschoug, 
is  now  botanical  professor. 

Fries's  earliest  work,  the  first  part  of  his  Novitise,  appeared 
in  the  year  1814,  when  the  author  was  only  twenty  years  old. 
His  last  of  any  moment,  a  new  edition  of  his  k-  Hymenomy- 
cetes  Europsei,"  was  published  on  his  eighty-first  birthday, 
August  15,  1874.  Most  of  the  sixty  intervening  years  are 
marked  by  some  publication  from  his  busy  and  careful  hand. 
His  work  was  wholly  in  systematic  botany,  and  of  the  highest 
character  of  its  kind.  In  Phsenogamous  botany,  it  related 
chiefly  to  the  Scandinavian  flora,  in  which  for  critical  judg- 
ment he  had  no  superior;  in  Mycology,  of  which  he  was  the 
reformator  and  to  a  good  degree  iu  Lichenology,  he  had  no 
rival  except  as  regards  microscopical  research.  The  modern 
microscope  did  not  exist  when  he  began  his  work.  and.  while 
showing  how  much  can   be   done  without  it,  he   may  too   Long 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Art>  and  Science,  xiii.  153. 

(1878.) 


412  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

have  underrated  its  value.  But  he  lived  to  see  it  confirm 
many  conclusions  which  his  insight  foresaw,  and  solve  riddles 
which  he  had  pondered,  but  was  unable  to  divine.  He  was 
the  prince,  Nestor,  and  last  survivor  of  an  excellent  school  of 
systematic  botanists,  whose  teachers  were  taught  by  Linnaeus 
or  his  contemporaries. 


JACOB   BIGELOW.1 

Dr.  Jacob  Bigelow  died  at  bis  residence  in  Boston,  on 
the  10th  of  January  last,  near  the  close  of  the  ninety-second 
year  of  his  age. 

While  we  would  pay  the  tribute  due  to  his  memory  as  by 
far  the  most  venerable  of  American  botanists, the  last  survivor 
of  a  school  in  this  country  which  culminated  half  a  century 
a<>-o,  it  should  also  be  remembered  that  he  was  even  at  that 
time  distinguished  in  their  scientific  avocations,  and  that  from 
middle  to  old  age  he  was  among  the  most  eminent  of  physi- 
cians. It  is  not  often  that  we  can  contemplate  a  life  so  long, 
so  richly  various,  and  so  well-rounded  as  his.  He  was  born 
in  Sudbury,  Massachusetts,  on  February  27,  1787  ;  and  his 
father  was  the  minister  of  the  town.  That  almost  goes  without 
saying,  most  of  our  distinguished  professional  men  of  his  and 
the  preceding  generations  in  New  England  having  been  the 
sons  of  country  ministers.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard 
College  in  the  year  1806,  Alexander  H.  Everett  and  the  Late 
Dr.  J.  G.  Cogswell  being  among  the  most  notable  of  his  class- 
mates, all  of  whom  he  long  survived.  He  directly  took  up 
the  study  of  medicine,  was  licensed  as  a  practitioner  in  1809, 
and  after  attending  one  course  of  lectures  in  Philadelphia, 
took  his  degree  of  M.  D.  at  Harvard  in  1810,  and  established 
himself  in  Boston.  There  he  was  a  practising  physician  for 
about  sixty  years,  and  since  the  death  of  his  senior.  Dr.  James 
Jackson,  probably  the  most  eminent  one.  What  turned  his 
attention  to  botany  we  know  not.  He  early  showed  an  al tid- 
ing taste  for  poetry.  His  commencement  part  was  a  poem, 
and  he  delivered  a  <I>.  B.  K.  poem  not  long  after.  At  about 
the  same  time,  however,  he  gave  a  course  of  popular  botani- 
cal lectures  in  Boston,  in  connection  with  Professor  Peck, 
who  must  have  been  installed  as  natural-history  professor  at 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xvii.  268.     ( 1ST'.).) 


414  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Cambridge  while  Dr.  Bigelow  was  a  medical  student.  The 
latter  possessed  the  gift  of  exposition  which  Dr.  Peck  lacked ; 
and  it  naturally  came  to  pass  that  Dr.  Bigelow  repeated  this 
course  of  lectures  alone  for  a  year  or  two  afterward. 

In  the  spring  of  1814  he  brought  out  the  first  edition  of  his 
"  Florula  Bostoniensis,"  the  book  which,  mainly  in  its  second 
edition,  has  been  the  manual  for  New  England  herborization 
down  to  a  recent  day,  or  rather  to  a  day  which  seems  to  us  re- 
cent. The  original  volume,  of  268  octavo  pages,  describes  the 
plants  which  "  have  been  collected  during  the  two  last  seasons 
in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  within  a  circuit  of  from  five  to  ten 
miles,"  exceeding  those  limits  only  in  the  case  of  Magnolia 
(from  Manchester)  and  one  or  two  more  remarkable  plants. 
We  know  of  no  other  Flora  of  the  kind  which  has  been  pre- 
pared so  quickly  and  so  well.  The  characters  are  short  diag- 
noses, and  in  good  part  compiled.  But  the  descriptive  matter 
must  have  been  original ;  and  it  shows  that  aptitude  for  seiz- 
ing the  best  points  of  character  or  most  available  distinctions, 
and  of  indicating  them  in  few  and  clear  words,  which  has 
made  this  Manual  so  deservedly  popular.  Similar  merits 
distinguish,  on  its  botanical  side,  Dr.  Bigelow' s  "  American 
Medical  Botany,"  a  quarto  work  which  was  published,  in  three 
parts  or  volumes,  between  1817  and  1821,  with  colored  plates 
—  at  that  time  thought  to  be  very  good  ones  indeed  —  of  the 
principal  medicinal  plants  of  the  country.  He  also  brought 
out  an  American  edition  of  Sir  James  Edward  Smith's  "  Intro- 
duction to  Botany  "  ;  and  his  botanical  knowledge,  along  with 
that  of  the  Materia  Medica  generally  and  his  classical  scholar- 
ship, placed  him  at  the  head,  or  at  the  laboring  oar,  of  the 
committee  which  in  1820  formed  the  American  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  writer  used  this  volume  in  his  medical  student  days,  and 
remembers  dimly  how  the  account  of  minor  preparations,  com- 
ing down  to  jams  and  conserves,  ended  with  the  classical 
"  Jam  satis  est  mihi." 

The  second  edition  of  the  "  Florula  Bostoniensis,"  published 
in  1824,  while  retaining  its  modest  title,  was  nearly  doubled 
in  size  and  in  the  number  of  plants  it  contained,  the  whole 
area  of  New  England  included  ;  and  it  became  the  manual  of 


JACOB  BIGELOW.  415 

botany  for  the  region.  What  a  popular  and  satisfactory  work 
it  was,  especially  to  hundreds  of  amateur  botanists,  some  still 
living  may  testify. 

The  third  and  last  edition,  issued  in  1840,  was  a  reprint, 
with  various  additions  and  corrections,  furnished  mainly  from 
those  who  had  learned  their  botany  from  the  preceding  one. 
This  is  the  last  Flora  or  Manual  of  this  and  perhaps  any 
other  country,  arranged  upon  the  Linnaean  artificial  system. 
Much  later  in  life  the  author  contemplated  a  revision  of  the 
work,  brought  up  to  the  time  and  illustrated  by  chromo- 
lithographic  plates,  such  as  we  have  lately  seen  turned  to  good 
account.  But  after  some  consideration  the  project  was  aban- 
doned. He  did  not  propose  himself  to  undertake  the  editorial 
work  ;  for  he  had  long  since  passed  from  actual  service  into 
the  emeritus  or  honorary  rank  of  botanists;  and  his  active 
professional  life,  already  verging  to  its  close,  was  diversified 
or  relieved  by  other  avocations.  Indeed,  some  of  these  were 
taken  up  very  early.  He  became  Rumford  professor  of  the 
applications  at  Cambridge  in  1816,  and  delivered  annual 
courses  of  lectures  until  1827,  when  he  published  the  sub- 
stance of  them  in  a  volume  entitled  "  Elements  of  Technol- 
ogy," here  coining  this  apt  word.  During  all  this  time,  and 
much  longer,  he  was  professor  of  Materia  Medica  in  the  medi- 
cal school  of  Harvard  University,  namely  from  1815  to  1855; 
for  mairy  of  these  years  one  of  the  physicians  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Hospital;  through  all  of  them,  and  until  old 
age  disabled  him,  a  leading  physician  of  Boston.  From  the 
year  1847  to  1863  he  was  president  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  of  which  body  he  was  a  member  for 
sixty-seven  years! 

We  cannot  here  refer  to  Dr.  Bigelow's  various  professional 
and  literary  writings.  They  are  not  numerous,  but  arc  weighty. 
His  treatise  on  "Nature  in  Disease,"  which  contains  fche  fa- 
mous discourse  "On  Self-limited  Disease/'  is  the  most  impor- 
tant of  them;  and  an  address  "On  the  Limits  of  Education," 
delivered  in  the  year  1865  before  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  is  notable.  It  has  been  said  of  the  latter,  that 
never  before  was  the  depreciation  of  classical  study  or  general 


416  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

culture,  as  a  preparation  for  technical  scientific  education, 
undertaken  by  so  ripe  a  classical  scholar  or  so  wide-cultured 
a  man.  His  many  essays  in  English  and  Latin  verse,  some  of 
which  have  been  privately  printed,  ought  to  be  collected.  Dr. 
Bigelow  lived,  honored  and  trusted,  to  a  good  old  age  before 
infirmities  touched  his  frame,  and  only  toward  the  close  was 
the  brightness  of  his  acute  mind  dimmed.  The  candle  at 
length  burnt  down,  the  flame  flickered  awhile  in  the  socket, 
and  the  light  went  out. 

The  name  will  abide  in  botanical  nomenclature.  First  ap- 
peared in  Rees'  Cyclopedia  the  Bigelowia  of  Smith,  founded 
on  the  Adelia  of  Michaux.  But  that  is  Forestiera.  Then 
Sprengel,  in  1821,  founded  a  genus  Bigelovia  on  a  Brazilian 
plant  which  he  took  to  be  a  Rhamnacea,  but  it  is  a  species  of 
Casearia.  Again,  in  1824,  Sprengel  gave  the  name  to  a  part 
of  Spermaeoce,  the  Borreria  of  G.  Meyer.  Then  De  Can- 
dolle,  in  1824,  was  proposing  a  Bigelowia  on  Solea  coucolor, 
of  our  own  New  England,  as  the  "  Prodromus  "  records,  when 
he  found  he  had  to  refer  it  to  Noisettia.  Lastly,  in  1836,  De 
Candolle  bestowed  the  name  of  Bigelovia  upon  some  golden- 
flowered  Compositce  of  the  southern  United  States,  which  had 
borne  the  name  of  an  Old  World  genus,  Chrysocoma  (Angiice, 
Golden-tuft),  and  he  added  the  complimentary  phrase :  "A 
Chrysocoma  separatum  dicavi  cl.  J.  Bigelow  qui  florae  Ameri- 
canae  auream  coronam  flora  Bostoniensi  et  medica  addidit." 
Although  this  genus  was  founded  upon  only  two  or  three 
species,  it  has  been  vastly  extended  by  the  exploration  of  the 
western  regions  of  our  country,  where  it  forms  a  conspicuous 
and  characteristic  portion  of  the  low  shrubby  vegetation. 
More  than  thirty  North  American  species  of  Biglovia,  besides 
one  of  Mexico  and  two  of  the  Andes  of  South  America,  now 
commemorate  our  venerable  late  associate.  Most  of  them 
were  introduced  to  the  genus  by  the  present  writer. 


JOHN   CAREY.1 

John  Carey  —  of  whom  few  of  the  botanists  of  our  day 
can  have  a  personal  remembrance  —  died  at  Blackhcath,  near 
London,  March  26  ult.,  in  the  83d  year  of  his  age.  He  came 
from  London  to  the  United  States,  in  the  spring  of  1830,  ac- 
companied by  three  young  and  motherless  children  and  by  his 
brother,  Samuel  T.  Carey,  who  was  also  addicted  to  botany. 
Both,  we  believe,  were  Fellows  of  the  Linnsean  Society,  and 
were  near  friends  of  Thomas  Bell,  afterwards  the  presi- 
dent of  that  society,  who  also  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  dying 
only  a  few  weeks  earlier  than  the  subject  of  this  notice. 
Samuel  T.  Carey  remained  in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  active 
business,  and  so  was  only  an  amateur  botanist.  His  brother 
John  went  into  the  country,  first  to  Towanda,  in  the  northern 
part  of  Pennsylvania,  then  to  Bellows  Falls,  Vermont,  where, 
giving  much  of  his  leisure  to  botanical  pursuits,  he  resided 
until  the  year  1836,  when  he  removed  to  New  York,  upon  the 
entrance  of  his  sons  into  Columbia  College.  He  did  not 
enter  into  business,  but  his  administrative  talents  and  great 
worth  were  so  appreciated  that  he  was  at  various  times  culled 
to  very  responsible  temporary  positions.  These  position-, 
although  unsought,  were  not  unwelcome,  for  no  small  part  of 
the  moderate  property  he  had  brought  from  England  had 
been  lost  in  investments  made  through  reliance  upon  the 
honor  and  probity  of  defaulting  States. 

From  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  the  United  States  down  to 
the  year  of  his  return  to  England  in  1852,  most  of  his  leisure 
was  given  to  botany,  and  much  of  it  in  the  companionship  of 
the  present  writer,  who  was  generously  and  greatly  assisted 
by  him  in  many  critical  studies.  The  proofs  of  the  writer's 
first  botanical   book  were   revised   by  him,  and   to   the    first 

1   American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  ',)  ser.,  xix.  421.      (1880.) 


418  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

edition  of  the  "  Manual  of  Botany  "  Mr.  Carey  contributed 
the  articles  on  Salix  and  on  Carex,  at  that  time  the  two  most 
difficult  parts  of  the  work.  In  the  year  1841  the  two  made  a 
botanical  journey  together  into  the  mountains  of  North  Caro- 
lina, extending  to  the  Grandfather  and  to  the  Roan,  though  a 
mishap  upon  the  former  mountain  prevented  Mr.  Carey  from 
reaching  the  latter.  After  the  establishment  of  the  writer  at 
Cambridge,  Mr.  Carey  was  his  frequent  guest  and  invaluable 
companion.  His  botanical  career  may  have  said  to  have 
closed  in  the  year  1852.  In  that  year  he  returned  to  Eng- 
land alone,  having  successively  lost  his  aged  mother  and  his 
two  younger  sons,  and  seen  the  elder  son  happily  established 
in  marriage.  He  engaged  for  several  years  in  business,  in 
connection  with  a  friend  of  his  youth,  whose  daughter  he  soon 
married,  but  lost  within  three  years,  after  the  birth  of  the  sec- 
ond of  the  two  children,  the  solace  and  comfort  and  care  of  a 
serene  old  age,  who  survive  to  perpetuate  his  name,  we  trust, 
on  that  side  of  the  ocean  also.  Mr.  Carey's  first  herbarium 
was  destroyed  by  a  calamitous  fire  in  New  York,  at  the  time 
of  the  death  of  his  youngest  son.  American  botanists  vied 
with  each  other  in  the  endeavor  to  repair  this  serious  loss,  and 
another  large  collection  of  United  States  plants  was  formed, 
critically  studied,  and  carefully  annotated.  This  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Kew  Gardens  herbarium  eleven  years  ago. 
Several  species  of  United  States  plants  commemorate  this 
honored  name,  among  them  a  Saxifrage,  which  was  discovered 
upon  the  excursion  to  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  where 
the  survivor  of  the  party  re-collected  it  last  summer.  The 
almost  sole  survivor  of  a  botanical  circle,  of  which  Torrey  was 
the  centre,  sadly  but  serenely  pays  the  tribute  of  this  brief 
note  to  the  memory  of  a  near  and  faithful  friend,  an  accom- 
plished botanist,  a  genial  and  warm-hearted  and  truly  good 
man. 


THOMAS   POTTS  JAMES.1 

Thomas  Potts  James  died  at  his  residence  in  Cam- 
bridge, February  22,  1882,  in  the  seventy-ninth  year  of  his 
age.  He  had  been  a  Fellow  of  the  Academy  for  only  four 
years,  most  of  his  life  having  been  spent  in  Philadelphia,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  which  city  he  was  born  on  the  1st  of 
September,  1803.  His  paternal  and  maternal  ancestors  weir 
notable  persons  among  the  earlier  settlers  of  Pennsylvania. 
For  forty  years  he  was  engaged  in  business  in  Philadelphia 
as  a  wholesale  druggist,  on  the  relinquishment  of  which  he 
removed  to  Cambridge,  bringing  his  wife  and  their  four  chil- 
dren to  her  paternal  home.  From  his  youth  he  was  more  or 
less  devoted  to  botany  ;  but  of  late  years,  having  more  leisure 
for  the  indulgence  of  his  taste,  and  wishing  to  be  more  than 
an  amateur,  he  devoted  himself  exclusively  and  most  sedu- 
lously to  bryology,  in  which  he  became  a  proficient.  After 
the  death  of  Mr.  Sullivant  in  1873,  Mr.  James  and  our  asso- 
ciate, Lesquereux,  were  looked  to  as  the  principal  authorities 
upon  Mosses  in  this  country;  and  the  duty  appropriately  de- 
volved upon  them  of  preparing  the  systematic  work  upon 
North  American  Bryology  which  Mr.  Sullivant  had  planned. 
Owing  to  the  preoccupation  of  Mr.  Lesquereux  in  vegetable 
palaeontology,  the  laboring  oar  fell  to  Mr.  James.  He  had 
already  published  some  papers  upon  the  subject  in  the  "Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,"  of  which  he 
had  long  been  an  active  member,  and  he  had  contributed  to 
Mr.  Watson's  "  Botany  of  Clarence  King's  Exploration  on  the 
Fortieth  Parallel"  a  notable  article  on  the  Mosses  of  that 
survey.  Our  own  Academy  has  also  published  some  of  the 
results  of  the  joint  study  of  these  two  veteran  bryologists. 
The  characters  of   Mosses  in   these   days   are    mostly  drawn 

1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  xvii.  40o. 
(1882.) 


420  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

from  their  minute  structure.  Hundreds  of  species  and  varie- 
ties in  numerous  specimens  had  to  be  patiently  scrutinized 
under  the  compound  microscope,  the  details  sketched  and  col- 
lated, and  the  differences  weighed.  To  this  task  Mr.  James 
gave  himself  with  single  and  untiring  devotion.  He  had  nearly 
brought  this  protracted  labor  of  microscopical  analysis  to  a 
conclusion,  and  was  actually  engaged  in  this  work,  when  the 
eye  suddenly  was  dimmed  and  the  pencil  dropped  from  his 
hand.  Partial  paralysis  was  soon  followed  by  coma,  and  he 
died  within  a  few  hours.  So  very  much  has  been  done,  that  it 
is  confidently  hoped  that  his  coadjutor  may  soon  bring  the  work 
to  a'  completion,  and  give  to  bryological  students  the  Manual 
of  North  American  Mosses  which  is  greatly  needed,  and  to 
which  a  vast  amount  of  faithful  research  has  been  devoted. 
The  name  of  Mr.  James  will  thereby  be  inseparably  associated 
with  the  advancement  of  an  interesting  branch  of  botany. 
He  was  not  often  seen  at  our  meetings,  but  he  is  greatly 
missed  by  his  associates  in  study,  and  his  memory  is  cherished 
by  all  who  in  the  various  relations  of  life  came  to  know  this 
diligent  and  conscientious  student  of  nature,  and  most  esti- 
mable, simple-hearted,  kindly,  and  devout  man. 


JOHN   AMORY   LOWELL.1 

John  Amory  Lowell  died  at  his  residence  in  Boston,  on 
the  31st  of  October  last,  when  he  had  almost  completed  the 
eighty-third  year  of  his  age,  for  he  was  born  on  the  11th  of 
November,  1798.  A  few  years  of  his  boyhood  —  from  1803 
to  1806  —  were  passed  in  Paris,  where  he  was  a  spectator  of 
some  of  the  glorifications  of  the  First  Empire,  especially  on 
the  occasion  of  the  return  from  Austerlitz.  He  entered  Har- 
vard College  in  1811,  Messrs.  Sparks,  Parsons,  and  Palfrey 
being  among  his  classmates,  and  after  graduation  he  entered 
a  mercantile  house.  He  was  elected  into  this  Academy  on  the 
10th  of  November,  1841,  at  the  same  time  with  two  other 
Fellows  assigned  to  the  botanical  section.  One  was  William 
Oakes,  of  Ipswich,  who  died  seven  years  afterward  ;  to  the 
other  is  assigned  the  duty  of  preparing  this  memorial.  When 
the  Fellows  of  the  Academy  were  arranged  in  classes  and  sec- 
tions, the  pronounced  tastes  inherited  from  his  father  and  culti- 
vated by  his  own  studies  made  it  natural  that  he  should  belong 
to  the  small  section  of  botany.  But  he  might  with  equal  pro- 
priety have  been  relegated  to  more  than  one  section  of  the 
third  class.  For,  notwithstanding  his  devotion  to  business 
affairs,  his  classical  and  linguistic  knowledge  were  always 
wrell  kept  up,  and  his  authority  upon  eeonomical  and  financial 
questions  was  great. 

The  family  has  always  had  a  marked  representation  in  this 
Academy.  To  mention  only  the  direct  line,  the  subject  of 
our  notice  was  chosen  into  it  very  shortly  after  tin-  death  of 
his  father,  —  the  John  Lowell  who,  after  achieving  distinctioo 
and  a  competency  at  the  bar,  retired  from  active  practice  at 
the  age  of  thirty-four,  to  be  known  through  his  valuable  writ- 
ings as  uThe  Norfolk   Farmer,"  and  as  a  principal  promoter, 

1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Aits  and  Science,  xvii.  408. 
(1882.) 


422  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

if  not  the  founder,  of  scientific  agriculture  and  horticulture  in 
New  England.  John  Lowell  —  the  father  of  John  Amory 
Lowell  —  was  elected  into  the  Academy  in  the  year  1804, 
soon  after  the  decease  of  his  father,  the  Hon.  John  Lowell, 
first  judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts, under  a  commission  from  Washington.  This  office  is 
now  held  by  his  great-grandson,  the  eldest  son  of  our  deceased 
associate,  who  has  been  a  Fellow  since  the  year  1877,  thus 
continuing  the  line  from  the  very  foundation  of  the  Academy, 
for  Judge  Lowell  was  one  of  the  sixt3^-two  members  incorpo- 
rated by  the  charter  in  1780.  In  tracing  the  genealogy  one 
step  farther  back,  we  come  (as  is  almost  universal  in  New 
England  families  of  note)  upon  a  clergyman,  the  Rev.  John 
Lowell,  of  Newbury,  a  man  of  mark  in  his  day. 

Mr.  Lowell  was  the  fourth  of  his  family  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Corporation  of  Harvard  University,  to  which  he  gave  a 
continuous  and  most  valuable  service  of  forty  years.  He  was 
for  more  than  fifty  years  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Suffolk 
Bank,  which  was  chartered  in  his  time,  and  which  early  estab- 
lished a  very  useful  plan  for  the  redemption  of  the  currency 
of  the  New  England  banks  in  Boston.  Not  to  mention  other 
important  public  trusts,  —  as  of  the  Athenaeum,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Hospital,  of  the  Agricultural  Trustees,  of 
the  Provident  Institution  for  Savings,  to  all  of  which  he  ren- 
dered assiduous  and  wise  service,  —  nor  to  refer  here  to  the 
very  important  part  which  he  has  taken  for  a  lifetime  in  the 
development  of  the  manufacturing  interests  of  Massachusetts, 
especially  as  prosecuted  in  the  town  which  was  named  in  com- 
memoration of  similar  services  by  his  cousin,  —  we  proceed  to 
speak  of  that  most  important  "  corporation  sole  "  founded  by 
that  cousin,  the  Lowell  Institute.  This  trust  was  specifically 
consigned  to  our  late  associate  and  to  such  successor  as  he 
should  appoint,  —  with  preference  to  the  family  and  the  name 
of  Lowell,  —  subject  to  no  other  than  a  formal  visitatorial 
control,  mainly  for  auditorship.  And  "to  him,  single  and 
alone,  it  fell  to  shape  the  whole  policy  and  take  the  whole 
direction  of  this  great  educational  foundation,"  the  history  of 
which  for  almost  half  a  century  has  justly  been  said  to  be  a 


JOHN  AMORY  LOWELL.  423 

"  record  of  his  own  intellectual  breadth  and  scope,  as  well  as 
of  his  large  administrative  capacity."  We  all  know  with  what 
good  judgment,  with  what  liberality,  and  with  what  success 
this  peculiar  trust  has  been  administered,  and  how  on  the  one 
hand  a  series  of  most  distinguished  men  have  been  attracted 
into  its  service,  while  on  the  other  the  efforts  of  younger  men 
have  been  stimulated  and  rewarded  at  the  period  when  such 
encouragement  was  most  important  to  them.  Suffice  it  to 
mention  the  names  of  Lyell  and  Agassiz,  —  the  former  early 
and  also  a  second  time  brought  from  England  for  courses  of 
lectures  at  the  Lowell  Institute,  the  latter  a  permanent  acqui- 
sition to  us  and  to  our  country.  Through  Mr.  Lowell's 
discernment,  moreover,  the  first  encouragement  to  devote  his 
life  to  scientific  pursuits  was  afforded  to  Jeffries  Wyman,  by 
the  offer  of  the  curatorship  of  the  Institute  as  well  as  of  a 
lectureship.  The  intellectual  and  the  financial  interests  of 
this  trust  have  equally  prospered  in  Mr.  Lowell's  hands ;  for 
while  the  number  of  lecture-courses  has  been  doubled,  and 
various  subsidiary  lines  of  instruction  have  been  developed, 
the  principal  of  the  fund  has  been  increased  to  thrice  its 
original  amount. 

Mr.  Lowell's  fondness  for  botany  developed  shortly  after  he 
left  college,  and  was  incited  by  the  botanical  intercourse  be- 
tween his  father  and  the  late  Dr.  Francis  Boott,  with  whom 
he  maintained  a  lifelong  friendship.  But  it  was  only  in  about 
the  year  1844  or  1845  that  he  began  the  formation  <>i  an 
herbarium  and  botanical  library;  and  this  was  actively  prose- 
cuted for  several  years,  in  evident  expectation  of  comparative 
leisure  which  he  could  devote  to  scientific  studies.  He  sub- 
scribed liberally  to  the  botanical  explorations  in  our  newly- 
acquired  or  newly-opened  western  territories  :  and  when  in 
Europe,  in  1850  and  1851,  he  added  largely  to  his  Btore  of 
rare  and  costly  botanical  books.  But  just  when  he  was  ready 
to  use  the  choice  materials  and  appliances  which  had  been 
brought  together,  the  financial  crisis  of  1867  remanded  him  to 
business.  The  grave  duties  and  responsibilities  which  he  re- 
sumed he  carried  up  nearly  to  the  age  of  fourscore  —  carried 
as  it  were  with  the   rigor  of  early  manhood  and  the  cheerful 


424  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

ease  that  attends  "a  real  love  of  work  for  the  work's  own 
sake."  And  when  it  became  evident  that  the  comparatively 
unbroken  attention  requisite  for  serious  botanical  study  was 
not  to  be  secured,  and  as  soon  as  a  building  was  prepared  for 
their  reception,  he  presented  all  his  botanical  books  which 
were  needed  to  the  herbarium  of  Harvard  University  ;  and 
the  remainder,  with  his  herbarium,  to  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History,  —  not  giving  up  the  while  his  studious  hab- 
its, but  transferring  his  attention  back  to  the  Latin  and  the 
French  classics,  and  in  a  certain  degree  to  German  and  Italian 
literature. 

As  his  father  was  one  of  the  leading  promoters  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Botanic  Garden  of  Harvard  University,  Mr. 
Lowell  was  also  its  most  efficient  supporter  through  its  years 
of  sorest  need ;  and,  in  memory  of  his  father,  he  bequeathed 
to  it  the  sum  of  $ 20,000  in  order  to  make  his  annual  subven- 
tion perpetual.  He  made  a  legacy  of  equal  amount  to  the 
general  Library  of  the  University,  which  he  along  with  his 
father  and  grandfather  had  served  in  a  most  responsible  trust 
for  seventy  years.  He  never  sought  or  accepted  any  office  in 
city  or  state ;  but  few  men  were  more  sought  for  responsible 
trusts,  o**  ever  served  their  day  and  generation  more  devotedly, 
disinterestedly,  and  wisely.  He  seemed  always  to  have  a  firm 
confidence  in  his  own  judgment,  and  that  confidence  appears 
not  to  have  been  misplaced. 


CHARLES  DARWIN.1 

Charles  Darwin  died  on  the  19th  of  April  last,  a  few 
months  after  the  completion  of  his  seventy-third  year  ;  and  on 
the  2Gth,  the  mortal  remains  of  the  most  celebrated  man  of 
science  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  laid  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  near  to  those  of  Newton. 

He  was  born  at  Shrewsbury,  February  12,  1809,  and  was 
named  Charles  Robert  Darwin.  But  the  middle  appellation 
was  omitted  from  his  ordinary  signature  and  from  the  title- 
pages  of  the  volumes  which,  within  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
have  given  such  great  renown  to  an  already  distinguished 
name.  His  grandfather,  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin, — who  died 
seven  years  before  his  distinguished  grandson  was  born,  — 
was  one  of  the  most  notable  and  original  meu  of  his  age  :  and 
his  father,  also  a  physician,  was  a  person  of  very  marked 
character  and  ability.  His  maternal  grandfather  was  Josiah 
Wedgwood,  who,  beginning  as  an  artisan  potter,  produced 
the  celebrated  Wedgwood  ware,  and  became  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  and  a  man  of  much  scientific  mark.  The  im- 
portance of  heritability,  which  is  an  essential  part  of  Dar- 
winism, would  seem  to  have  had  a  significant  illustration  in 
the  person  of  its  great  expounder.  lie  was  educated  at  the 
Shrewsbury  Grammar  School  and  at  Edinburgh  University, 
where,  following  the  example  of  his  grandfather,  lie  Btudied 
for  two  sessions,  having  the  medical  profession  in  view,  and 
where,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1826,  he  made  his  firs!  con- 
tribution to  natural  history  in  two  papers  |  one  <>t"  them  <>n  the 
ova  of  Flustra).  Soon  finding  the  medical  profession  no!  to 
his  liking,  he  proceeded  to  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
entering  Christ's  College,  and  took  his  bachelor's  degree  in 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Aincriran  .Wad.  my  of  Art-  and  Science,  xvii.  1  \[K 
(1882.) 


426  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

1831  ;   that  of  M.  A.  in  1837,  after  his  return  from  South 
America. 

It  is  said  that  Darwin  was  a  keen  fox-hunter  in  his  youth, 
—  not  a  bad  pursuit  for  the  cultivation  of  the  observing  pow- 
ers. There  is  good  authority  for  the  statement  —  though  it 
has  nowhere  been  made  in  print  —  that  at  Cambridge  he  was 
disposed  at  one  time  to  make  the  Church  his  profession,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  Buckland  and  of  his  teacher,  Sedg- 
wick. But  in  1831,  just  as  he  was  taking  his  bachelor's  de- 
gree, Captain  Fitzroy  offered  to  receive  into  his  own  cabin 
any  naturalist  who  was  disposed  to  accompany  him  in  the 
Beagle's  surveying  voyage  round  the  world.  Mr.  Darwin 
volunteered  his  services  without  salary,  with  the  condition 
only  that  he  should  have  the  disposal  of  his  own  collections. 
And  this  expedition  of  nearly  five  years  —  from  the  latter 
part  of  September,  1831,  to  the  close  of  October,  1836  —  not 
only  fixed  the  course  and  character  of  the  young  naturalist's 
life-work,  but  opened  to  his  mind  its  principal  problems  and 
suggested  the  now  familiar  solution  of  them.  For  he  brought 
back  with  him  to  England  a  conviction  that  the  existing  spe- 
cies of  animals  and  plants  are  the  modified  descendants  of 
earlier  forms,  and  that  the  internecine  struggle  for  life  in 
which  these  modifiable  forms  must  have  been  engaged  would 
scientifically  explain  the  changes.  The  noteworthy  point  is 
that  both  the  conclusion  and  the  explanation  were  the  legiti- 
mate outcome  of  real  scientific  investigation.  It  is  an  equally 
noteworthy  fact,  and  a  characteristic  of  Darwin's  mind,  that 
these  pregnant  ideas  were  elaborated  for  more  than  twenty 
years  before  he  gave  them  to  the  world.  Offering  fruit  so 
well  ripened  upon  the  bough,  commending  the  conclusions  he 
had  so  thoroughly  matured  by  the  presentation  of  very  various 
lines  of  facts,  and  of  reasonings  close  to  the  facts,  unmixed 
with  figments  and  a  priori  conceptions,  it  is  not  so  surprising 
that  his  own  convictions  should  at  the  close  of  the  next  twenty 
years  be  generally  shared  by  scientific  men.  It  is  certainly 
gratifying  that  he  should  have  lived  to  see  it,  and  also  have 
outlived  most  of  the  obloquy  and  dread  which  the  promulga- 
tion of  these  opinions  aroused. 


CHARLES  DARWIN.  427 

Mr.  Darwin  lived  a  very  quiet  and  uneventful  life.  In 
1839  he  married  his  eousin,  Emma  Wedgwood,  who  with  five 
sons  and  two  daughters  survives  him  ;  he  made  his  home  on 
the  border  of  the  little  hamlet  of  Down,  in  Kent,  —  u  a  plain 
but  comfortable  brick  house  in  a  few  acres  of  pleasure-ground, 
a  pleasantly  old-fashioned  air  about  it,  with  a  sense  of  peace 
and  silence;"  and  here,  attended  by  every  blessing  except 
that  of  vigorous  health,  he  lived  the  secluded  but  busy  life 
which  best  suited  his  chosen  pursuits  and  the  simplicity  of 
his  character.  He  was  seldom  seen  even  at  scientific  meet- 
ings, and  never  in  general  society ;  but  he  could  welcome  his 
friends  and  fellow-workers  to  his  own  house,  where  he  was  the 
most  charming  of  hosts. 

At  his  home,  without  distraction  and  as  continuously  as  his 
bodily  powers  would  permit,  Mr.  Darwin  gave  himself  to  his 
work.  At  least  ten  of  his  scientific  papers,  of  greater  or  less 
extent,  had  appeared  in  the  three  years  between  his  return  to 
England  and  his  marriage  ;  and  in  the  latter  year  (1S39)  he 
published  the  book  by  which  he  became  popularly  known, 
namely,  the  "  Journal  of  Researches  into  the  Natural  History 
and  Geology  of  the  Countries  visited  during  the  Voyage  of 
the  Beagle,"  which  has  been  pronounced  ik  the  most  entertain- 
ing book  of  genuine  travels  ever  written,"  and  it  certainly  is 
one  of  the  most  instructive.  His  work  on  "Coral  Reefs" 
appeared  in  1842,  but  the  substance  had  been  communicated 
to  the  Geological  Society  soon  after  his  return  to  England  ; 
his  papers  on  "Volcanic  Islands,"  on  the  "Distribution  of 
Erratic  Boulders  and  Contemporaneous  Unstratified  Deposits 
in  South  America,"  on  the  "Fine  Dust  which  falls  on  Ves- 
sels in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,"  and  some  other  geological  as  well 
as  zoological  researches,  were  published  previously  t<»  L851. 
Between  that  year  and  185')  he  brought  out  his  most  con- 
siderable contributions  to  systematic  zoology,  his  monographs 
on  the  Cirripedia  and  the  fossil  Lepadids. 

We  come  to  the  first  publication  of  what  is  now  known  as 
Darwinism.  It  consists  of  a  sketch  of  the  doctrine  of  Nat- 
ural   Selection,   which   was   drawn    up   in   the   year    1839,    and 

copied  and  communicated  to  Messrs.   Lyell  and  Hooker  in 


428  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

1844,  being  a  part  of  the  manuscript  of  a  chapter  in  his 
44  Origin  of  Species ;  "  also  of  a  private  letter  addressed  to 
the  writer  of  this  memorial  in  October,  1857,  —  the  publica- 
tion of  which  (in  the  Journal  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Lin- 
ngean  Society,  Zoological  Part,  iii.  45-53,  issued  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1858)  was  caused  by  the  reception  by  Darwin  himself 
of  a  letter  from  Mr.  Wallace,  inclosing  a  brief  and  strikingly 
similar  essay  on  the  same  subject,  entitled  "  On  the  Tendency 
of  Varieties  to  depart  indefinitely  from  the  Original  Type." 
Mr.  Darwin's  action  upon  the  reception  of  this  rival  essay 
was  characteristic.  His  own  work  was  not  yet  ready,  and  the 
fact  that  it  had  been  for  years  in  preparation  was  known  only 
to  the  persons  above  mentioned.  He  proposed  to  have  the 
paper  of  Mr.  Wallace  (who  was  then  in  the  Moluccas)  pub- 
lished at  once,  in  anticipation  of  his  own  leisurely  prepared 
volume ;  and  it  was  only  under  the  solicitation  of  his  friends 
cognizant  of  the  case  that  his  own  early  sketch  and  the  cor- 
roboratory letter  were  printed  along  with  it. 

The  precursory  essays  of  Darwin  and  Wallace,  published 
in  the  Proceedings  of  a  scientific  society,  can  hardly  have  been 
read  except  by  a  narrow  circle  of  naturalists.  Most  thought- 
ful investigating  naturalists  were  then  in  a  measure  prepared 
for  them.  But  toward  the  close  of  the  following  year  (in  the 
autumn  of  1859)  appeared  the  volume  "  On  the  Origin  of 
Species  by  means  of  Natural  Selection,  or  the  Preservation  of 
Favored  Races  in  the  Struggle  for  Life,"  the  first  and  most 
notable  of  that  series  of  duodecimos  which  have  been  read 
and  discussed  in  almost  every  cultured  language,  and  which 
within  the  lifetime  of  their  author  have  changed  the  face  and 
in  some  respect  the  character  of  natural  history,  —  indeed 
have  almost  as  deeply  affected  many  other  lines  of  investiga- 
tion and  thought. 

In  this  Academy,  where  the  rise  and  progress  of  Darwinian 
evolution  have  been  attentively  marked  and  its  bearings  criti- 
cally discussed,  and  at  this  date,  when  the  derivative  origin  of 
animal  and  vegetable  species  is  the  accepted  belief  of  all  of  us 
who  study  them,  it  would  be  superfluous  to  give  any  explana- 
tory account  of   these    now  familiar  writings ;    nor,  indeed, 


CHARLES  DARWIX.  429 

would  the  pages  which  we  are  accustomed  to  consecrate  to  the 
memory  of  our  recently  deceased  associates  allow  of  it.  Let 
us  note  in  passing  that  the  succeeding  volumes  of  the  series  may 
be  ranked  in  two  classes,  one  of  which  is  much  more  widely 
known  than  the  other.  One  class  is  of  those  which  follow  up 
the  argument  for  the  origination  of  species  through  descent 
with  modification,  or  which  widen  its  base  and  illustrate  the 
modus  operandi  of  Natural  Selection.  Such  are  the  two  vol- 
umes on  "  Domesticated  Animals  and  Cultivated  Plants," 
illustrating  Variation,  Inheritance,  Reversion,  Interbreeding, 
etc. ;  the  volume  on  the  "  Descent  of  Man,  and  Selection  in 
Relation  to  Sex,"  —  which  extended  the  hypothesis  to  its  logi- 
cal limits  —  and  that,  "  On  the  Expression  of  the  Emotions  in 
Man  and  the  Lower  Animals,"  published  in  1872,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  the  last  of  this  series.  Since  then  Mr.  Dar- 
win appears  to  have  turned  from  the  highest  to  the  lower 
forms  of  life,  and  to  have  entered  upon  the  laborious  cultiva- 
tion of  new  and  special  fields  of  investigation,  which,  although 
prosecuted  on  the  lines  of  his  doctrine  and  vivified  by  its 
ideas,  might  seem  to  be  only  incidentally  connected  with  the 
general  argument.  But  it  will  be  found  that  all  these  lines 
are  convergent.  Nor  were  these  altogether  new  studies.  The 
germ  of  the  three  volumes  upon  the  Relation  of  Insects  to 
Flowers  and  its  far-reaching  consequences,  is  a  little  paper, 
published  in  the  year  1858,  "  On  the  Agency  of  Bees  in  the 
Fertilization  of  Papilionaceous  Flowers,  and  on  the  Crossing 
of  Kidney  Beans;  "  the  first  edition  of  the  volume  on  "  The 
various  Contrivances  by  which  Orchids  are  Fertilized  by  In- 
sects "  appeared  in  1862,  thus  forming  the  a nd  volume  of 

the  whole  series;  and  the  two  volumes  '*On  the  Effects  of 
Cross  and  Self-Fertilization  in  the  Vegetable  Kingdom,"  and 
"The  different  Forms  of  Flowers  on  Plants  of  the  same  Spe- 
cies," which,  along  with  the  new  edition  of  "The  Fertili- 
zation of  Orchids,"  were  all  published  in  1^7*1  and  1*77. 
originated  in  two  or  three  remarkable  papers  contributed  to 
the  "Journal  of  the  Linnaean  Society"  in  1862  and  1863,  but 
are  supplemented  by  additional  and  protracted  experiments. 
The  volume  on  "  Insectivorous  Plants."  and  the   noteworthy 


430  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

conclusions  in  respect  to  the  fundamental  unity,  and  therefore 
common  source,  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  grew  out  of  an 
observation  which  the  author  made  in  the  summer  of  1860, 
when  he  "  was  surprised  by  finding  how  large  a  number  of 
insects  were  caught  by  the  leaves  of  the  common  Sun-dew 
(Drosera  rotundifolia),  on  a  heath  in  Sussex."  Almost 
everybody  had  noticed  this;  and  one  German  botanist  (Roth), 
just  a  hundred  years  ago,  had  observed  and  described  the 
movement  of  the  leaf  in  consequence  of  the  capture.  But 
nothing  came  of  it,  or  of  what  had  been  as  long  known  of  our 
Dionaea,  beyond  a  vague  wonderment,  until  Mr.  Darwin  took 
up  the  subject  for  experimental  investigation.  The  precursor 
of  his  volume  on  "  The  Movements  and  Habits  of  Climbing 
Plants,"  published  in  1875,  as  well  as  of  the  recent  and  larger 
volume  on  "  The  Power  of  Movement  in  Plants,"  1880,  was 
an  essay  published  in  the  "  Journal  of  the  Linnsean  Society  " 
in  1865  ;  and  this  was  instigated  by  an  accidental  but  capital 
observation  made  by  a  correspondent,  in  whose  hands  it  was 
sterile ;  but  it  became  wonderfully  fertile  when  touched  by 
Darwin's  genius.1  His  latest  volume,  on  "  The  Formation  of 
Vegetable  Mould  through  the  Action  of  Worms,"  is  a  devel- 
opment, after  long  years,  of  a  paper  which  he  read  before  the 
Geological  Society  of  London  in  1837. 

These  subsidiary  volumes  are  less  widely  known  than  those 

1  Mr.  Darwin's  quickness  in  divining  the  meaning  of  seemingly  unim- 
portant things  is  illustrated  in  his  study  of  Dionsea.  Noting  that  the 
trap  upon  irritation  closes  at  first  imperfectly,  leaving  some  room  within 
and  a  series  of  small  interstices  between  the  crossed  spines,  but  after  a 
time,  if  there  is  prey  within,  shuts  down  close,  he  at  once  inferred  that 
this  was  a  provision  for  allowing  small  insects  to  escape,  and  for  retaining 
only  those  large  enough  to  make  the  long  process  of  digestion  remunera- 
tive. To  test  the  surmise,  he  asked  a  correspondent  to  visit  the  habitat 
of  Dionfea  at  the  proper  season,  and  to  ascertain  by  the  examination  of  a 
large  number  of  the  traps  in  action  whether  any  below  a  certain  consider- 
able size  were  to  be  found  in  them.  The  result  confirmed  the  inference, 
a  comparatively  trivial  but  characteristic  illustration  of  Darwin's  confi- 
dence in  the  principle  of  utility,  and  a  good  example  of  the  truth  of  the 
dictum,  which  was  by  some  thought  odd  when  first  made,  namely,  that 
Darwin  had  restored  teleology  to  natural  history,  from  which  the  study 
of  morphology  had  dissevered  it. 


CHARLES  DARWIN.  431 

of  the  other  class ;  but  they  are  of  no  less  interest,  and  they 
are  very  characteristic  of  the  author's  genius  and  methods,  — 
characteristic  also  of  his  laboriousness.  For  the  amount  of 
prolonged  observation,  watchful  care,  and  tedious  experiment 
they  have  demanded  is  as  remarkable  as  the  skill  in  devising 
simple  and  effectual  modes  of  investigation  is  admirable 
That  he  should  have  had  the  courage  to  undertake  and  the 
patience  to  carry  on  new  inquiries  of  this  kind  after  he  had 
reached  his  threescore  and  ten  years  of  age,  and  after  he  had 
attained  an  unparalleled  breadth  of  influence  and  wealth  of 
fame,  speaks  much  for  his  energy  and  for  his  devotion  to 
knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  Indeed,  having  directed  the 
flow  of  scientific  thought  into  the  new  channel  he  had  opened, 
along  which  the  current  set  quicker  and  stronger  than  he  could 
have  expected,  he  seems  to  have  taken  up  with  fresh  delight 
studies  which  he  had  marked  out  in  early  years,  or  topics 
which  from  time  to  time  had  struck  his  acute  attention.  To 
these  he  gave  himself,  quite  to  the  last,  with  all  the  spirit  and 
curiosity  of  youth.  Evidently  all  this  amount  of  work  was 
done  for  the  pure  love  of  it ;  it  was  all  done  methodically, 
with  clear  and  definite  aim,  without  haste,  but  without  inter- 
mission. 

It  would  confidently  be  supposed  that  in  this  case  genius 
and  industry  were  seconded  by  leisure  and  bodily  vigor.  For- 
tunately Darwin's  means  enabled  him  to  control  the  disposi- 
tion of  his  time.  But  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle,  which  was 
so  advantageous  to  science,  ruined  his  health.  A  soil  of 
chronic  sea-sickness,  under  which  all  his  work  abroad  iras 
performed,  harassed  him  ever  afterwards.  The  days  in  which 
he  could  give  two  hours  to  investigation  or  writing  were 
counted  as  good  ones,  and  for  much  of  his  life  they  were 
largely  outnumbered  by  those  in  which  nothing  could  be 
attempted.  Only  by  great  care  and  the  simplest  habit-  was 
he  able  to  secure  even  a  moderate  amount  of  comfortable 
existence.  But  in  this  respect  his  Later  years  were  the  best 
ones,  and  therefore  the  busiest.  In  them  also  he  had  most 
valuable  filial  aid.  There  was  nothing  to  cause  much  anxiety 
until  his  seventy-third  birthday  had  passed,  or  to  excite  alarm 
until  the  week  before  his  death. 


432  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

It  may  without  exaggeration  be  said  that  no  scientific  man, 
certainly  no  naturalist,  ever  made  an  impression  at  once  so 
deep,  so  wide,  and  so  immediate.  The  name  of  Linnaeus 
might  suggest  comparison ;  but  readers  and  pupils  of  Linnseus 
over  a  century  ago  were  to  those  of  Darwin  as  tens  are  to 
thousands,  and  the  scientific  as  well  as  the  popular  interest  of 
the  subjects  considered  were  somewhat  in  the  same  ratio. 
Humboldt,  who,  like  Darwin,  began  with  research  in  travel, 
and  to  whom  the  longest  of  lives,  vigorous  health,  and  the 
best  opportunities  were  allotted,  essayed  similar  themes  in  a 
more  ambitious  spirit,  enjoyed  equal  or  greater  renown,  but 
made  no  deep  impression  upon  the  thought  of  his  own  day  or 
of  ours.  As  one  criterion  of  celebrity,  it  may  be  noted  that 
no  other  author  we  know  of  ever  gave  rise  in  his  own  active 
lifetime  to  a  special  department  of  bibliography.  Dante-liter- 
ature and  Shakespeare-literature  are  the  growth  of  centuries; 
but  Dancinismus  had  filled  shelves  and  alcoves  and  teeming 
catalogues  while  the  unremitting  author  was  still  supplying 
new  and  ever  novel  subjects  for  comment.  The  technical 
term  which  he  chose  for  a  designation  of  his  theory,  and  sev- 
eral of  the  phrases  originated  in  explanation  of  it  only  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  have  already  been  engrafted  into  his  mother 
tongue,  and  even  into  other  languages,  and  are  turned  to  use 
in  common  as  well  as  in  philosophical  discourse,  without  sense 
of  strangeness. 

Wonderful  indeed  is  the  difference  between  the  reception 
accorded  to  Darwin  and  that  met  with  by  his  predecessor, 
Lamarck.  But  a  good  deal  has  happened  since  Lamarck's 
day ;  wide  fields  of  evidence  were  open  to  Darwin  which  were 
wholly  unknown  to  his  forerunner ;  and  the  time  had  come 
when  the  subject  of  the  origin  and  connection  of  living  forms 
could  be  taken  up  as  a  research  rather  than  as  a  speculation. 
Philosophizers  on  evolution  have  not  been  rare  ;  but  Darwin 
was  not  one  of  them.  He  was  a  scientific  investigator,  —  a 
philosopher,  if  you  please,  but  one  of  the  type  of  Galileo. 
Indeed  very  much  what  Galileo  was  to  physical  science  in  his 
time,  Darwin  is  to  biological  science  in  ours.  This  without 
reference  to  the  fact  that  the  writings  of  both  conflicted  with 


CHARLES  DARWIN.  433 

similar  prepossessions ;  and  that  the  Darwinian  theory,  legiti- 
mately considered,  bids  fair  to  be  placed  in  this  respect  upon 
the  same  footing  with  the  Copernican  system. 

An  English  poet  wrote  that  he  awoke  one  morning  and 
found  himself  famous.  When  this  happened  to  Darwin,  it 
was  a  genuine  surprise.  Although  he  had  addressed  himself 
simply  to  scientific  men,  and  had  no  thought  of  arguing  his 
case  before  a  popular  tribunal,  yet  "The  Origin  of  Species" 
was  too  readable  a  book  upon  too  sensitive  a  topic  to  escape 
general  perusal;  and  this,  indeed,  must  in  some  sort  have 
been  anticipated.  But  the  avidity  with  which  the  volume  was 
taken  up,  and  the  eagerness  of  popular  discussion  which  en- 
sued, were  viewed  by  the  author  —  as  his  letters  at  the  time 
testify  —  with  a  sense  of  amused  wonder  at  an  unexpected 
and  probably  transient  notoriety. 

The  theory  he  had  developed  was  presented  by  a  working 
naturalist  to  his  fellowrs,  with  confident  belief  that  it  would 
sooner  or  later  win  acceptance  from  the  younger  and  more 
observant  of  these.  The  reason  why  these  moderate  expecta- 
tions were  much  and  so  soon  exceeded  are  not  far  to  seek, 
though  they  were  not  then  obvious  to  the  world  in  general. 
Although  mere  speculations  were  mostly  discountenanced  by 
the  investigating  naturalists  of  that  day,  yet  their  work  and 
their  thoughts  were,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  tending  in 
the  direction  of  evolution.  Even  those  who  manfully  rowed 
against  the  current  were  more  or  less  carried  along  witli  it. 
and  some  of  them  unwittingly  contributed  to  its  force.  Most 
of  them  in  their  practical  studies  had  worked  up  t<>.  or  were 
nearly  approaching,  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  past 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  to  the  present,  and  of  the  present  t<> 
one  another,  in  such  wise  as  to  suggest  inevitably  that,  some- 
how or  other,  descent  witli  modification  was  eventually  to  be 
the  explanation.  This  was  the  natural  outcome  of  the  line  of 
thought  of  which  Lyell  early  became  the  cautious  and  fair- 
minded  expositor, and  with  which  he  reconstructed  theoretical 
geology.  If  Lyell  had  known  as  much  at  first  hand  of  botany 
or  zoology  as  he  knew  of  geology,  it  i-  probable  that  hi-  cel- 
ebrated chapter  on  the  permanence  of  species  in  the  "  Prin- 


434  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

ciples "  would  have  been  reconsidered  before  the  work  had 
passed  to  the  ninth  edition  in  1853.  He  was  convinced  that 
species  went  out  of  existence  one  by  one,  through  natural 
causes,  and  that  they  came  in  one  by  one,  bearing  the  impress 
of  their  immediate  predecessors  ;  but  he  saw  no  way  to  con- 
nect the  two  through  natural  operations.  Nor,  in  fact,  had 
any  of  the  evolutionists  been  able  to  assign  real  causes  capable 
of  leading  on  such  variations  as  are  of  well-known  occurrence 
to  wider  and  specific  or  generic  differences.  Just  here  came 
Darwin.  When  upon  the  spot  he  had  perceived  that  the 
animals  of  the  Galapagos  must  be  modified  forms  derived 
from  the  adjacent  continent,  and  he  soon  after  worked  out 
the  doctrine  of  natural  selection.  This  supplied  what  was 
wanting  for  the  condensation  of  opinions  and  beliefs,  and  the 
collocation  of  rapidly  accumulating  facts,  into  a  consistent 
and  workable  scientific  theory,  under  a  principle  which  un- 
questionably could  directly  explain  much,  and  might  indirectly 
explain  more. 

It  is  not  merely  that  Darwin  originated  and  applied  a  new 
principle.  Not  to  speak  of  Wallace,  his  contemporary,  who 
came  to  it  later,  his  countryman,  Dr.  Wells,  as  Mr.  Darwin 
points  out,  "  distinctly  recognizes  the  principle  of  natural 
selection,  and  this  is  the  first  recognition  which  has  been 
indicated ;  but  he  applied  it  only  to  the  races  of  men,  and  to 
certain  characters  alone."  Darwin,  like  the  rest  of  the  world, 
was  unaware  of  this  anticipation  until  he  was  preparing  the 
fourth  edition  of  his  "  Origin  of  Species,"  in  1866,  when  he 
promptly  called  attention  to  it,  perhaps  magnifying  its  impor- 
tance. However  this  be,  Darwin  appears  to  have  been  first 
and  alone  in  apprehending  and  working  out  the  results  which 
necessarily  come  from  the  interaction  of  the  surrounding 
agencies  and  conditions  under  which  plants  and  animals  exist, 
including,  of  course,  their  action  upon  each  other.  Personify- 
ing the  ensemble  of  these  and  the  consequences,  —  namely, 
the  survival  only  of  the  fittest  in  the  struggle  for  life,  —  under 
the  term  of  Natural  Selection,  Mr.  Darwin,  with  the  instinct 
of  genius  divined,  and  with  the  ability  of  a  master  worked 
out  its  pregnant  and  far-reaching  applications.     He  not  only 


CHARLES  DARWIN.  435 

saw  its  strong  points,  but  he  foresaw  its  limitations,  indicated 
most  of  the  objections  in  advance  of  his  opponents,  weighed 
them  with  judicial  mind,  and  where  he  could  not  obviate 
them,  seemed  never  disposed  to  underrate  their  force.  Al- 
though naturally  disposed  to  make  the  most  of  his  theory,  he 
distinguished  between  what  he  could  refer  to  known  causes 
and  what  thus  far  is  not  referable  to  them.  Consequently, 
he  kept  clear  of  that  common  confusion  of  thought  which 
supposes  that  natural  selection  originates  the  variations  which 
it  selects.  He  believed,  and  he  has  shown  it  to  be  probable, 
that  external  conditions  induce  the  actions  and  changes  in  the 
living  plant  or  animal  which  may  lead  on  to  the  difference 
between  one  species  and  another;  but  he  did  not  maintain 
that  they  produced  the  changes,  or  were  sufficient  scientifically 
to  explain  them.  Unlike  most  of  his  contemporaries  in  this 
respect,  he  appears  to  have  been  thoroughly  penetrated  by  the 
idea  that  the  whole  physiological  action  of  the  plant  or  animal 
is  a  response  of  the  living  organism  to  the  action  of  the  sur- 
roundings. 

The  judicial  fairness  and  openness  of  Darwin's  mind,  his 
penetration  and  sagacity,  his  wonderful  power  of  eliciting  the 
meaning  of  things  which  had  escaped  questioning  by  their 
very  commonness,  and  of  discerning  the  great  significance  of 
causes  and  interactions  which  had  been  disregarded  on  ac- 
count of  their  supposed  insignificance,  his  method  of  reason- 
ing1 close  to  the  facts  and  in  contact  with  the  solid  ground  of 
nature,  his  aptness  in  devising  fruitful  and  conclusive  exper- 
iments, and  in  prosecuting  nice  researches  witli  simple  but 
effectual  appliances,  and  the  whole  rare  combination  of  quali- 
ties which  made  himfacUe  prinu pa  in  biological  investiga- 
tion,—  all  these  gifts  are  so  conspicuously  manifest  in  his 
published  writings,  and  are  so  fully  appreciated,  that  there  if 
no  need  to  celebrate  them  in  an  obituary  memorial.  The 
writings  also  display  in  n<>  small  degree  the  spirit  of  the  man, 
and  to  this  not  a  little  of  their  persuasiveness  i-  due.  His 
desire  to  ascertain  the  truth,  and  to  present  it  purely  to  his 
readers,  is  everywhere  apparent.  Conspicuous,  also,  is  the 
absence  of  all  trace  of  controversy  and  of  everything  like 


436  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

pretension ;  and  this  is  remarkable,  considering  how  censure 
and  how  praise  were  heaped  upon  him  without  stint.  He 
does  not  teach  didactically,  but  takes  the  reader  along  with 
him  as  his  companion  in  observation  and  in  experiment. 
And  in  the  same  spirit,  instead  of  showing  pique  to  an  oppo- 
nent, he  seems  always  to  regard  him  as  a  helper  in  his  search 
for  the  truth.  Those  privileged  to  know  him  well  will  certify 
that  he  was  one  of  the  most  kindly  and  charming,  unaffected, 
simple-hearted,  and  lovable  of  men. 

How  far  and  how  long  the  Darwinian  theory  will  hold 
good,  the  future  will  determine.  But  in  its  essential  elements, 
apart  from  a  "priori  philosophizing,  with  which  its  author  had 
nothing  to  do,  it  is  an  advance  from  which  it  is  evidently  im- 
possible to  recede.  As  has  been  said  of  the  theory  of  the 
Conservation  of  Energy,  so  of  this :  "  The  proof  of  this  great 
generalization,  like  that  of  all  other  generalizations,  lies 
mainly  in  the  fact  that  the  evidence  in  its  favor  is  continually 
augmenting,  while  that  against  it  is  continually  diminishing, 
as  the  progress  of  science  reveals  to  us  more  and  more  of  the 
workings  of  the  universe." 


JOSEPH   DECAISNE.1 

Joseph  Decaisne,  the  oldest  member  of  the  Botanical 
Section  on  the  foreign  list,  died  at  Paris,  on  the  8th  of  Feb- 
ruary last,  in  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
elected  into  this  Academy  in  August,  1846,  along  with  Agas- 
siz  and  De  Verneuil.  He  was  born  at  Brussels,  March  11, 
1807,  the  second  of  three  brothers,  one  of  whom  became  a 
distinguished  painter,  and  the  other  the  head  of  the  medical 
department  of  the  Belgian  army.  He  came  to  Paris  and 
entered  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  when  a  lad  of  seventeen  years, 
and  in  its  service  his  whole  subsequent  life  was  passed.  The 
young  employe  attracted  the  attention  of  Adrien  de  Jussieu, 
who,  seeing  his  promise  and  unusual  botanical  knowledge, 
soon  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  seed  department,  and  in 
1833  made  him  his  Aide-naturaliste,  thus  giving  the  young 
gardener  opportunity  for  the  studies  and  researches  by  which 
he  won  a  place  among  the  foremost  botanists  of  the  time. 
For  more  than  forty  years  the  administration  of  the  Jardin 
des  Plantes  and  the  duties  of  the  chair  of  Culture  at  the 
Museum  were  in  his  hands,  he  having  supplied  the  place  of 
Mirbel  through  the  closing  years  of  the  hitter's  life,  and  suc- 
ceeded him  as  professor  in  the  year  1851 :  and  these  duties 
he  continued  to  fulfill  to  the  last.  He  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  Institute  in  1847,  in  succession  to  Dutrochet :  for  forty 
years  he  was  one  of  the  editors  of,  and  since  the  death  of  his 
colleague,  Adolphe  Brongniart.  lie  was  the  sole  editor  of  the 
botanical  portion  of  the  "Annales  dea  Sciences  Naturelles." 
In  the  Annales  he  had  published  some  good  botanical  pa- 
pers, the  earliest  in  the  year  1831.  But  his  first  distinction 
was  gained  by  his  anatomical  and  physiological  researches 
upon  the  Madder-plant,  a  monograph  containing  the  results 
of   which   appeared    at    Brussels    in    1837,   and  was   said  t<»    be 

w*one  of  the  most  able  memoirs  that  has  ever  been  published 

on  the  physiological  history  of  plants  and  their  bearing  on 

1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  kvii.  158.  (1882.) 


438  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

practical  cultivation  and  manufactures."  Two  years  later,  hi 
connection  with  the  chemist  Peligot,  he  published  an  investi- 
gation of  the  anatomical  structure  of  the  Sugar-beet.  His 
classical  memoir  upon  the  structure  and  development  of  the 
Mistletoe  appeared  in  1840,  and  is  of  purely  scientific  interest. 
In  the  year  1841  he  showed  that  the  Corallines,  which  had 
been  wrongly  carried  over  to  the  animal  kingdom  with  the 
Corals  and  their  allies,  were  genuine  Seaweeds,  disguised  by 
the  incorporation  of  a  great  amount  of  lime  into  their  tissues. 
And  about  this  time,  in  connection  with  his  friend  and  former 
pupil,  Thuret,  he  discovered  and  illustrated  the  male  organs 
of  the  Fuel,  as  well  as  the  mode  of  iuq^regnation  and  repro- 
duction, thus  initiating  the  investigations  which  in  the  hands 
of  the  late  Thuret  and  others  have  revolutionized  phycology. 

Leaving  these  researches  for  his  associate  to  complete  and 
publish,  thenceforth  Decaisne  turned  all  his  attention  to 
phanerogamous  botany,  morphological  and  systematic.  Two 
orders  were  elaborated  by  him  for  De  Candolle's  "  Prodro- 
mus,"  Asclepiadacece  and  Plantaginacece,  the  former  de- 
manding much  minute  research ;  he  produced  in  1868,  in 
conjunction  with  Le  Maout,  that  admirable  text-book,  the 
"  Traite  Generale  de  Botanique,"  profusely  illustrated  by  his 
own  facile  pencil,  which  is  well  known  in  the  original  and  in 
the  English  translation  edited  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker.  But 
the  works  by  which  he  will  be  most  widely  known,  and  which 
were  connected  especially  with  his  directorship  of  the  Jardin 
des  Plantes,  are  that  incomparable  series  of  colored  illustra- 
tions of  fruits,  together  with  descriptive  text,  known  as  "  Le 
Jardin  Fruitier  du  Museum,"  and  his  subsidiary  investiga- 
tions and  publications  upon  the  Pomacece  and  their  allies. 
These  important  publications  began  in  the  year  1858,  and 
were  completed  only  a  year  or  two  ago. 

Decaisne  never  married :  he  lived  his  simple  and  devoted 
life  in  the  house  on  Rue  Cuvier  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes, 
where  he  died,  regretted  and  beloved,  the  last  of  the  line  of 
illustrious  botanists  —  such  as  Mirbel,  Adrien  de  Jussieu, 
Gaudichaud,  and  Adolphe  Brongniart  —  who  were  associated 
in  the  administration  of  this  institution  thirty  or  forty  years 


GEORGE   ENGELMANN.1 

In  the  death  of  Dr.  Engelmann,  which  took  place  on  the 
4th  of  February  last,  the  American  Academy  has  lost  one  of 
its  very  few  Associate  Fellows  in  the  Botanical  Section,  and 
the  science  one  of  its  most  eminent  and  venerable  cultivators. 

He  was  born  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  February  2,  1809, 
and  had  therefore  just  completed  his  seventy-fifth  year.  His 
father,  a  younger  member  of  the  family  of  Engelmanns  who 
for  several  generations  served  as  clergymen  at  Bacharach  on 
the  Rhine,  was  also  educated  for  the  ministry,  and  was  a 
graduate  of  the  university  of  Halle,  but  he  devoted  his  life  to 
education.  Marrying  the  daughter  of  George  Oswald  May,  a 
somewhat  distinguished  portrait-painter,  they  established  at 
Frankfort,  and  carried  on  for  a  time  with  much  success,  a 
school  for  young  ladies,  such  as  are  common  in  the  United 
States,  but  were  then  a  novelty  in  Germany. 

George  Enge.lmann  was  the  eldest  of  thirteen  children 
born  of  this  marriage,  nine  of  whom  survived  to  manhood. 
Assisted  by  a  scholarship  founded  by  "  the  Reformed  Congre- 
gation of  Frankfort,"  he  went  to  the  university  of  Heidelberg 
in  the  year  1827,  where  he  had  as  fellow-students  and  com- 
panions Karl  Schimper  and  Alexander  Braun.  With  the 
latter  he  maintained  an  intimate  friendship  and  correspond- 
ence, interrupted  only  b}r  the  death  of  Braun  in  1877.  The 
former,  who  manifested  unusual  genius  as  a  philosophical 
naturalist,  after  laying  the  foundations  of  phyllotaxy.  to  In- 
built upon  by  Braun  and  others,  abandoned,  through  some 
singular  infirmity  of  temper,  an  opening  scientific  career  of 
the  highest  promise,  upon  which  the  three  young  friends, 
Agassiz,  Braun,  and  Schimper,  and  in  his  turn  Engelmann, 
had  zealously  entered. 

1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  xix.  516. 
(1884.) 


440  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

Embarrassed  by  some  troubles  growing  out  of  a  political 
demonstration  by  the  students  at  Heidelberg,  Engelmann  in 
the  autumn  of  1828  went  to  the  university  of  Berlin  for  two 
years ;  and  thence  to  Wiirzburg,  where  he  took  his  degree  of 
Doctor  in  Medicine  in  the  summer  of  1831.  His  inaugural 
dissertation,  "  De  Antholysi  Prodromus,"  which  he  published 
at  Frankfort  in  1832,  testifies  to  his  early  predilection  for 
botany,  and  to  his  truly  scientific  turn  of  mind.  It  is  a  mor- 
phological dissertation,  founded  chiefly  on  the  study  of  mon- 
strosities, illustrated  by  five  plates  filled  with  his  own  draw- 
ings. It  was  therefore  quite  in  the  line  with  the  little  treatise 
on  the  Metamorphosis  of  Plants,  published  forty  years  be- 
fore by  another  and  the  most  distinguished  native  of  Frank- 
fort, and  it  appeared  so  opportunely  that  it  had  the  honor 
of  Goethe's  notice  and  approval.  Goethe's  correspondent, 
Madame  von  Willema,  sent  a  copy  to  him  only  four  weeks 
before  his  death.  Goethe  responded,  making  kind  inquiries 
after  young  Engelmann,  who,  he  said,  had  completely  appre- 
hended his  ideas  of  vegetable  morphology,  and  had  shown 
such  genius  in  their  development  that  he  offered  to  place  in 
this  young  botanist's  hands  the  store  of  unpublished  notes  and 
sketches  which  he  had  accumulated. 

The  spring  and  summer  of  1832  were  passed  at  Paris  in 
medical  and  scientific  studies,  with  Braun  and  Agassiz  as 
companions,  leading,  as  he  records,  "  a  glorious  life  in  scien- 
tific union,  in  spite  of  the  cholera."  Meanwhile,  Dr.  Engel- 
mann's  uncles  had  resolved  to  make  some  land  investments  in 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  he  willingly  became  their 
agent.  At  least  one  of  the  family  was  already  settled  in  Illi- 
nois, not  far  from  St.  Louis.  Dr.  Engelmann,  sailing  from 
Bremen  for  Baltimore  in  September,  joined  his  relatives  in 
the  course  of  the  winter,  made  many  lonely  and  somewhat 
adventurous  journeys  on  horseback  in  southern  Illinois,  Mis- 
souri, and  Arkansas,  which  yielded  no  other  fruits  than 
those  of  botanical  exploration ;  and  finally  he  established 
himself  in  the  practice  of  medicine  at  St.  Louis,  late  in  the 
autumn  of  1835.  St.  Louis  was  then  rather  a  frontier 
trading-post  than  a  town,  of  barely  eight  or   ten    thousand 


GEORGE  ENGELMANN.  441 

inhabitants.  He  lived  to  see  it  become  a  metropolis  of  over 
four  hundred  thousand.  He  began  in  absolute  poverty,  the 
small  means  he  had  brought  from  Europe  completely  ex- 
hausted. In  four  years  he  had  laid  the  foundations  of  success 
in  his  profession,  and  had  earned  the  menus  for  making  a 
voyage  to  Germany,  and,  fulfilling  a  long-standing  engage- 
ment, for  bringing  to  a  frugal  home  the  chosen  companion  of 
his  life,  Dora  Hartsmann,  his  cousin,  whom  he  married  at 
Kreuznach,  on  the  11th  of  June,  1840.  On  his  way  homeward, 
at  New  York,  the  writerof  this  memorial  formed  the  personal 
acquaintance  of  Dr.  Engelmann  ;  and  thus  began  the'  friend- 
ship and  the  scientific  association  which  has  continued  un- 
broken for  almost  half  a  century. 

Dr.  Engelmann's  position  as  a  leading  physician  in  St. 
Louis,  as  well  among  the  American  as  the  German  and  French 
population,  was  now  soon  established.  He  was  even  able  in 
1856,  without  risk,  to  leave  his  practice  for  two  years,  t<>  de- 
vote most  of  the  first  summer  to  botanical  investigation  in 
Cambridge,  and  then,  with  his  wife  and  young  son,  to  revisit 
their  native  land,  and  to  fill  up  a  prolonged  vacation  in  inter- 
esting travel  and  study.  In  the  year  ls»»X  the  family  visited 
Europe  for  a  year,  the  son  remaining  to  pursue  his  medical 
studies  in  Berlin.  And  lastly,  his  companion  of  nearly  forty 
years  having  been  removed  by  death  in  January,  1879,  and 
his  own  robust  health  having  suffered  serious  and  indeed 
alarming  deterioration,  he  sailed  again  for  Germany  in  the 
summer  of  1883.  The  voyage  was  so  beneficial  that  he  was 
able  to  take  up  some  botanical  investigations,  which,  however, 
were  soon  interrupted  by  serious  Bymptoms.  Bu1  the  return 
voyage  proved  wonderfully  restorative:  and  when,  in  early 
autumn,  he  rejoined  his  friends  here,  they  coul  1  hope  that 
the  unfinished  scientific  labors,  which  he  at  one.-  resumed 
with  alacrity  of  spirit,  might  >till  for  a  while  1»"  carried  on 
with  comfort.  So  indeed  fchej  were,  in  souk-  measure,  after 
his  return  to  his  home,  yet  with  increasing  infirmity  and  no 
little  suffering  until  the  sudden  illness  supervened  which,  in 
a  few  days,  brought  his  honorable  and  well-filled  lite  to 
a  close. 


442  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Dr.  Engelmann  was  able  to 
explore  considerable  portions  of  his  adopted  country,  the 
mountains  of  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior region,  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  contiguous  plains 
in  Colorado  and  adjacent  territories,  and  so  to  study  in  place, 
and  with  the  particularity  which  characterized  his  work,  the 
Cacti,  the  Coniferce,  and  other  groups  of  plants  which  he 
had  for  many  years  been  specially  investigating.  "  In  1880 
he  made  a  long  journey  through  the  forests  of  the  Pacific 
States,  where  he  saw  for  the  first  time  in  the  state  of  nature 
plants  which  he  had  studied  and  described  more  than  thirty 
years  before.  Dr.  Engelmann's  associates  [so  one  of  them 
declares]  will  never  forget  his  courage  and  industry,  his  en- 
thusiasm and  zeal,  his  abounding  good-nature,  and  his  kind- 
ness and  consideration  of  every  one  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact."  His  associates,  and  also  all  his  published  writings, 
may  testify  to  his  acuteness  in  observation,  his  indomitable 
perseverance  in  investigation,  his  critical  judgment,  and  a  rare 
openness  of  mind  which  prompted  him  continually  to  revise 
old  conclusions  in  the  light  of  new  facts  or  ideas. 

In  the  consideration  of  Dr.  Engelmann's  botanical  work  — 
to  which  these  lines  will  naturally  be  devoted  —  it  should  be 
remembered  that  his  life  was  that  of  an  eminent  and  trusted 
physician,  in  large  and  general  practice,  who  even  in  age  and 
failing  health  was  unable,  however  he  would  have  chosen,  to 
refuse  professional  services  to  those  who  claimed  them ;  that 
he  devoted  only  the  residual  hours,  which  most  men  use  for 
rest  or  recreation,  to  scientific  pursuits,  mainly  to  botany,  yet 
not  exclusively.  He  was  much  occupied  with  meteorology. 
On  establishing  his  home  at  St.  Louis,  he  began  a  series  of 
thermometrical  and  barometrical  observations,  which  he  con- 
tinued regularly  and  systematically  to  the  last,  when  at  home 
always  taking  the  observations  himself,  —  the  indoor  ones  even 
up  to  the  last  day  but  one  of  his  life.  Even  in  the  last  week 
he  was  seen  sweeping  a  path  through  the  snow  in  his  garden 
to  reach  his  maximum  and  minimum  thermometers.  His 
latest  publication  (issued  since  his  death  by  the  St.  Louis 
Academy  of  Sciences)  is  a  digest  and  full  representation  of 


GEORGE  ENGELMANN.  443 

the  thermometrical  part  of  these  observations  for  forty-seven 
years.  He  apologizes  for  not  waiting  the  completion  of  the 
half-century  before  summing  up  the  results,  and  shows  that 
these  could  not  after  three  more  years  be  appreciably  dif- 
ferent. 

A  list  of  Dr.  Engelmann's  botanical  papers  and  notes,  col- 
lected by  his  friend  and  associate,  Professor  Sargent,  and 
published  in  Coulter's  "Botanical  Gazette  "  for  May,  1VM. 
contains  about  one  hundred  entries,  and  is  certainly  QOt 
quite  complete.  His  earliest  publication,  his  inaugural  thesis 
already  mentioned  (De  Antholysi  Prodromus),  is  a  treatise 
upon  teratology  in  its  relations  to  morphology.  It  is  a  re- 
markable production  for  the  time  and  for  a  mere  medical 
student  with  botanical  predilections.  There  is  an  interesting 
recent  analysis  of  it  in  "Nature"  for  April  24,  by  Dr.  Mas- 
ters, the  leading  teratologist  of  our  day,  who  compares  it  with 
Moquin-Tandon's  more  elaborate  "Teratologic  Vegetale," 
published  ten  years  afterwards,  and  who  declares  that,  "when 
we  compare  the  two  works  from  a  philosophical  point  of  view, 
and  consider  that  the  one  was  a  mere  college  essay,  while  the 
other  was  the  work  of  a  professed  botanist,  we  must  admit 
that  Engelmann's  treatise,  so  far  as  it  goes,  affords  evident  e 
of  deeper  insight  into  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  deviations 
from  the  ordinary  conformation  of  plants  than  does  that  of 
Moquin." 

Transferred  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  Burrounded 
by  plants  most  of  which  still  needed  critical  examination,  Dr. 
Engelmann's  avocation  in  botany  and  his  mode  of  work  were 
marked  out  for  him.  Nothing  escaped  his  attention  :  lie  drew 
with  facility;  and  he  methodically  secured  his  observations 
by  notes  and  sketches,  available  for  his  own  after-use  and  for 
that  of  his  correspondents.  Bui  the  lasting  impression  which 
he  has  made  upon  North  American  botany  Is  due  to  his  wise 
habit  of  studying  his  subjects  in  their  systematic  relations, 

and    of   devoting    himself    to  a  particular    genus    or    group  of 

plants  (generally  the  more  difficult)  until  he  had  elucidated 

it  as  completely  as  lav  within  hi-  power.  In  this  way  all  his 
work  was  made  to  tell  effectively. 


444  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Thus  his  first  monograph  was  of  the  genus  Cuscuta  (pub- 
lished in  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  in  1842),  of  which 
when  Engelmann  took  it  up  we  were  supposed  to  have  only 
one  indigenous  species,  and  that  not  peculiar  to  the  United 
States,  but  which  he  immediately  brought  up  to  fourteen 
species  without  going  west  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  In  the 
year  1859,  after  an  investigation  of  the  whole  genus  in  the 
materials  scattered  through  the  principal  herbaria  of  Europe 
and  this  country,  he  published  in  the  first  volume  of  the  St. 
Louis  Academy  of  Sciences  a  systematic  arrangement  of  all 
the  Cuscutce,  characterizing  seventy-seven  species,  besides 
others  classed  as  perhaps  varieties. 

Mentioning  here  only  monographical  subjects,  we  should 
next  refer  to  his  investigations  of  the  Cactus  family,  upon 
which  his  work  was  most  extensive  and  important,  as  well  as 
particularly  difficult,  and  upon  which  Dr.  Engelmann's  author- 
ity is  of  the  very  highest.  He  essentially  for  the  first  time 
established  the  arrangement  of  these  plants  upon  floral  and 
carpological  characters.  This  formidable  work  was  begun  in 
his  "  Sketch  of  the  Botany  of  Dr.  A.  Wislizenus's  Expedition 
from  Missouri  to  Northern  Mexico,"  in  the  latter's  memoir  of 
this  tour,  published  by  the  United  States  Senate.  It  was  fol- 
lowed up  by  his  account  (in  the  American  Journal  of  Science, 
1852)  of  the  Giant  Cactus  on  the  Gila  (  Cereus  giganteus) 
and  an  allied  species ;  by  his  synopsis  of  the  Cactacem  of  the 
United  States,  published  in  the  "  Proceedings  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  1856 ;  and  by  his  two  illus- 
trated memoirs  upon  the  southern  and  western  species,  one 
contributed  to  the  fourth  volume  of  the  series  of  Pacific  Rail- 
road Expedition  Reports,  the  other  to  Emory's  Report  on  the 
Mexican  Boundary  Survey.  He  had  made  large  preparations 
for  a  greatly  needed  revision  of  at  least  the  North  American 
Cactacece.  But,  although  his  collections  and  sketches  will  be 
indispensable  to  the  future  monographer,  very  much  knowledge 
of  this  difficult  group  of  plants  is  lost  by  his  death. 

Upon  two  other  peculiarly  American  groups  of  plants,  very 
difficult  of  elucidation  in  herbarium  specimens,  Yucca  and 
Agave,  Dr.  Engelmann  may  be  said  to  have  brought  his  work 


GEORGE   ENGELMANN.  445 

up  to  the  time.  Nothing  of  importance  is  yet  to  be  added  to 
what  he  modestly  styles  "  Notes  on  the  Genus  Yucca,"  pub- 
lished in  the  third  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  St.  Louis 
Academy,  1873,  and  not  much  to  the  "  Notes  on  Agave," 
illustrated  by  photographs,  included  in  the  same  volume  and 
published  in  1875. 

Less  difficult  as  respects  the  material  to  work  upon,  but 
well  adapted  for  his  painstaking,  precise,  and  thorough  hand- 
ling, were  such  genera  as  Juncus  (elaborately  monographed 
in  the  second  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  St.  Louis 
Academy,  and  also  exemplified  in  distributed  sets  of  speci- 
mens), Euphorbia  (in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Pacific  Kail- 
road  Reports,  and  in  the  Botany  of  the  Mexican  Boundary), 
Sagittaria  and  its  allies,  Callitriche,  Isoetes  (of  which  his 
final  revision  is  probably  ready  for  publication),  and  the 
North  American  LoranthacecB,  to  which  Sparganium,  certain 
groups  of  Gentiana,  and  some  other  genera,  would  have  to 
be  added  in  any  complete  enumeration.  Revisions  of  these 
genera  were  also  kindly  contributed  to  Dr.  Grays  Manual ; 
and  he  was  an  important  collaborator  in  several  of  the  memoirs 
of  his  surviving  associate  and  friend. 

Of  the  highest  interest,  and  among  the  best  specimens  of 
Dr.  Engelmann's  botanical  work,  are  his  various  papers  upon 
the  American  Oaks  and  the  Coniferce,  published  in  the 
"Transactions  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy."  and  elsewhere,  the 
results  of  long-continued  and  most  conscientious  study.  The 
same  must  be  said  of  his  persevering  study  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican Vines,  of  which  he  at  length  recognized  and  characterized 
a  dozen  species, — excellent  subjects  for  his  nice  discrimina- 
tion, and  now  becoming  of  no  small  importance  to  grape- 
growers,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  Nearly  all  that 
we  know  scientifically  of  our  species  and  forms  of  \  itis  is 
directly  due  to  Dr.  Engelmann's  investigations.  Bis  first 
separate  publication  upon  them,  "The  Grape  Vines  of  Mis- 
souri," was  published  in  1860 J  his  last,  a  lvelaboration  of 
the  American  species,  with  figures  of  their  seeds,  is  in  the 
third  edition  of  the  Bushberg  Catalogue,  published  only  a  few 
months  airo. 


446  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

Imperfect  as  this  mere  sketch  of  Dr.  Engelmann's  botani- 
cal authorship  must  needs  be,  it  may  show  how  much  may  be 
clone  for  science  in  a  busy  physician's  horce  subsecivce,  and  in 
his  occasional  vacations.  Not  very  many  of  those  who  could 
devote  their  whole  time  to  botany  have  accomplished  as  much. 
It  need  not  be  said,  and  yet  perhaps  it  should  not  pass  un- 
recorded, that  Dr.  Engelmann  was  appreciated  by  his  fellow- 
botanists  both  at  home  and  abroad,  that  his  name  is  upon  the 
rolls  of  most  of  the  societies  devoted  to  the  investigation  of 
nature,  that  he  was  "  everywhere  the  recognized  authority  in 
those  departments  of  his  favorite  science  which  had  most  in- 
terested him,"  and  that,  personally  one  of  the  most  affable 
and  kindly  of  men,  he  was  as  much  beloved  as  respected  by 
those  who  knew  him. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago  his  oldest  associates  in  this  coun- 
try —  one  of  them  his  survivor  —  dedicated  to  him  a  mono- 
typical  genus  of  plants,  a  native  of  the  plains  over  whose  bor- 
ders the  young  immigrant  on  his  arrival  wandered  solitary 
and  disheartened.  Since  then  the  name  of  Engelmann  has, 
by  his  own  researches  and  authorship,  become  unalterably  as- 
sociated with  the  Buffalo-grass  of  the  plains,  the  noblest  Coni- 
fers of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  most  stately  Cactus  in  the 
world  and  with  most  of  the  associated  species,  as  well  as  with 
many  other  plants  of  which  perhaps  only  the  annals  of  botany 
may  take  account.  It  has  been  well  said  by  a  congenial  biog- 
rapher, that  "  the  western  plains  will  still  be  bright  with  the 
yellow  rays  of  Engelmannia,  and  that  the  splendid  Spruce, 
the  fairest  of  them  all,  which  bears  the  name  of  Engelmann, 
will  still,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  cover  with  noble  forests  the  high- 
est slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  recalling  to  men,  as  long 
as  the  study  of  trees  occupies  their  thoughts,  the  memory  of 
a  pure,  upright,  and  laborious  life." 


OSWALD   HEER.1 

Oswald  Heer,  the  most  eminent  investigator  of  the  fossil 
plants  and  insects  of  the  tertiary  period,  died  on  the  27th  of 
September  last,  shortly  after  he  had  entered  upon  the  seventy- 
fifth  year  of  his  age. 

He  was  born  at  the  hamlet  of  Nieder-Utzwyl,  in  Canton 
St.  Gallen,  Switzerland,  August  31,  1809,  passed  most  of 
his  youth  at  Matt,  in  Canton  Glarus,  where  his  father  was 
the  parish  clergyman,  pursued  his  academic  and  professional 
studies  at  the  university  of  Halle,  and  was  ordained  as  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel  in  the  year  1831.  The  next  year  he  went 
to  Zurich,  where  he  resided  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Hen  he 
studied  medicine  for  a  time,  but  soon  devoted  himself  seri- 
ously to  entomology  and  botany,  of  which  he  was  fond  from 
boyhood.  In  1834  he  became  Privat-docent  of  these  sciences  ; 
in  1852,  when  the  university  of  Zurich  was  developed,  he  be- 
came its  professor  of  botany,  and  in  1855  he  took  a  similar 
chair  in  the  Polytechnicum.  Most  of  his  earlier  publications 
were  entomological ;  and  it  was  by  the  way  of  entomology  that 
he  entered  upon  his  distinguished  career  as  a  palaeontologist. 
His  life-long  friend,  the  eminent  Escher  von  der  Linth,  ap- 
preciating his  rare  powers  of  observation,  induced  him  to 
undertake  the  study  of  the  fossil  insects  of  the  celebrated  ter- 
tiary deposits  of  Oeningen.  The  results  of  his  labors  in  this 
virgin  field  were  published  between  the  years  1847  and  L853. 
His  attention  had  from  the  first  been  attracted  to  the  plants 
associated  with  the  insect  remains.  I  lis  firsl  paheo-botanical 
paper  appeared  in  1851  ;  the  three  volumes  <>f  lii-  "  Flora 
Tertiaria  Helvetian"  were  issued  between  1855  and  1859  :  in 
1862  his  memoir  on  the  fossil  flora  of  Bovey-Tracey  I  Eng- 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  anil  Science,  BX.  550. 
(1884.) 


448  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

land)  was  published  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Society,  London.  About  the  same  time  also  appeared 
a  paper  in  the  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society  on  certain 
fossil  plants  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  For  the  benefit  of  his 
health,  always  delicate  and  then  much  impaired,  he  passed  the 
winter  of  1854-55  in  Madeira,  and  on  his  return  published  a 
paper  on  the  fossil  plants  of  that  island,  and  an  article  on  the 
probable  origin  of  the  actual  flora  and  fauna  of  the  Azores, 
Madeira,  and  the  Canaries.  In  this,  and  in  his  work,  pub- 
lished in  1860,  on  "  Tertiary  Climates  in  their  Relation  to 
Vegetation  "  (which  the  next  year  appeared  also  in  a  French 
translation  by  his  young  friend  Gaudin),  Heer  brought  out 
his  theory  of  a  Miocene  Atlantis.  His  more  extensive  and 
popular  treatise  upon  past  climates  as  illustrated  by  vegetable 
paleontology,  his  "  Urwelt  der  Schweiz,"  —  a  vivid  portrai- 
ture of  the  past  of  his  native  country,  —  appeared  in  1865, 
and  afterwards  in  a  revised  French  edition,  with  his  friend 
Gaudin  (who  died  soon  after)  for  collaborator  as  well  as 
translator.  There  was  also  an  English  translation  by  Hey- 
wood,  published  in  1876,  and,  indeed,  it  is  said  to  have  been 
translated  into  six  languages. 

In  1877  Heer  completed  his  "  Flora  Fossilis  Helvetia?,"  a 
square-folio  volume,  with  seventy  plates,  which  extended  and 
supplemented  his  Tertiary  Flora  of  that  country,  being  de- 
voted to  the  illustration  of  the  fossil  plants  of  the  Carbon- 
iferous, the  Triassic,  the  Jurassic,  and  the  Cretaceous,  as  well 
as  the  Eocene  formations. 

The  life-long  delicacy  of  Heer's  health  prevented  his  mak- 
ing any  extensive  explorations  in  person.  But  materials  for 
his  investigation  came  to  him  in  even  embarrassing  abun- 
dance, not  only  from  his  own  country,  —  where,  even  before 
he  was  widely  known  (as  his  fellow-countryman  and  his  dis- 
tinguished fellow- worker  in  palgeo-botany,  Lesquereux,  informs 
us),  a  lady  opened  upon  her  property  near  Lausanne  quarries 
and  tunnels  expressly  for  the  discovery  and  collection  of  fossil 
plants,  and  sent  them  by  tons  to  Zurich,  —  but  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  collections  were  pressed  upon  him,  and  his  whole 
time  and  strength  were  given  to  their  study.     In  this  way  he 


OSWALD  HEER.  449 

became  interested  in  the  arctic  fossil  flora,  of  which  he  be- 
came the  principal  investigator  and  expounder.  His  first  es- 
say in  the  domain  which  he  has  made  so  peculiarly  his  own 
was  in  a  paper  on  certain  fossil  plants  of  Vancouver's  Island 
and  British  Columbia,  published  in  18G5;  and  in  1868  he 
brought  out  the  first  of  that  most  important  series  of  memoirs 
upon  the  ancient  floras  of  arctic  America,  Greenland,  Spits- 
bergen, Nova  Zembla,  arctic  and  subarctic  Asia,  etc.,  which, 
collected,  make  up  the  seven  quarto  volumes  of  the  "  flora 
Fossilis  Arctica."  The  seventh  volume  of  this  monumental 
work  was  brought  to  a  conclusion  only  a  few  mouths  before 
the  author's  death. 

Heer's  researches  into  the  fossil  botany  of  the  tertiary  de- 
posits were  very  important  in  their  bearings.  They  made  it 
certain  that  our  actual  temperate  floras  round  the  world  had 
a  common  birthplace  at  the  north,  where  the  continents  are 
in  proximity  ;  they  essentially  identified  the  direct  or  col- 
lateral ancestors  of  our  existing  forest-trees  which  flourished 
within  the  arctic  zone  when  it  enjoyed  a  climate  resembling 
our  own  at  present;  and  they  leave  the  similarities  and  the 
dissimilarities  of  the  temperate  floras  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
World  to  be  explained  as  simple  consequences  of  established 
facts.  Thus  Heer  himself  did  away  with  his  own  hypothesis 
of  a  continental  Atlantis  by  bringing  to  light  the  facts  which 
proved  that  there  was  no  need  of  it.  And  while  thus  justify- 
ing the  ideas  which  had  been  brought  forward  in  one  of  the 
memoirs  of  the  American  Academy  (in  1859)  before  these 
fossil  data  were  known,  he  was  not  slow  to  adopt  and  to  ex- 
tend the  tentative  views  which  he  had  confirmed. 

A  list  of  Heer's  scientific  publications  is  given  in  the  "  Bo- 
tanisches  Centralblatt,"  No.  5,  for  1884.  They  arc  seventy- 
seven  in  number,  besides  the  seven  quarto  volumes  of  the 
"Flora  Fossilis  Arctica, "  which  comprise  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  independent  memoirs.  These  works  make  an  era  in 
vegetable  palaeontology.  Thoir  crowning  general  interest  Lb 
that  they  bring  the  vegetation  of  the  past  into  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  present. 

Although  he  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  and  was  never  inac- 


450  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

tive,  Heer  was  for  most  of  his  life  an  invalid,  suffering  from 
pulmonary  disease.  For  the  last  twelve  years  his  work  was 
carried  on  at  his  bedside  or  from  his  bed,  assisted  by  a  de- 
voted and  accomplished  daughter ;  he  seldom  left  his  house, 
except  to  pass  the  last  two  winters  in  the  milder  climate  of 
Italy.  Last  summer,  having  finished  his  "Flora  Fossilis 
Arctica,"  in  the  hope  of  recruiting  his  exhausted  strength  he 
was  removed  to  the  most  sheltered  spot  on  the  shores  of  the 
Lake  of  Geneva,  but  without  benefit.  He  died  at  Lausanne, 
at  his  brother's  house,  on  the  27th  of  September,  1883.  It 
has  been  well  said  of  him,  in  a  tribute  which  a  personal  friend 
and  fellow-naturalist  paid  to  his  memory,  that  "  a  man  more 
lovable,  more  sympathetic,  and  a  life  more  laborious  and  pure, 
one  could  scarcely  imagine." 

Heer  was  elected  into  the  Academy  in  May,  1877.  He  is 
botanically  commemorated  in  a  genus  of  beautiful  Melastoma- 
ceous  plants  indigenous  to  Mexico. 


GEORGE   BENTHAM.1 

George  Bentham,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  botanists 
of  the  present  century,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  one  of  the 
oldest,  was  born  at  Stoke,  a  suburb  of  Portsmouth,  September 
22,  1800.  He  died  at  his  house,  No.  25  Wilton  Place,  Lon- 
don, on  the  10th  of  September,  1884,  a  few  days  short  of 
eighty-four  years  old.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Jeremiah 
Bentham,  a  London  attorney  or  solicitor,  had  two  sons,  who 
both  became  men  of  mark,  Jeremy  and  Samuel.  The  latter 
and  younger  had  two  sons,  only  one  of  whom,  the  subject  of 
this  memoir,  lived  to  manhood.  George  Bentham's  mother 
was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  George  Fordyce,  a  Scottish  physician 
who  settled  in  London,  was  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  a 
lecturer  on  chemistry,  and  the  author  of  some  able  medical 
works,  also  of  a  treatise  upon  Agriculture  and  Vegetation. 
It  was  from  his  mother  that  George  Bentham  early  imbibed 
a  fondness  for  botany. 

The  early  part  of  his  life  and  education  was  somewhat 
eventful  and  peculiar,  and  in  strong  contrast  with  the  later. 
His  father,  General,  subsequently  Sir  Samuel  Bentham,  was 
an  adept  in  naval  architecture.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he 
visited  the  arsenals  of  the  Baltic  for  the  improvement  of  his 
knowledge;  thence  he  traveled  far  into  Siberia.  He  became 
intimate  witli  Prince  Potemkin,  by  whom  he  was  induced  to 
enter  the  civil  and  afterwards  the  military  service  <»f  the  Em- 
press Catharine.  He  took  part  in  a  naval  action  against  the 
Turks  on  the  Black  Sea,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  command 
of  a  regiment  stationed  in  Siberia,  with  which  lie  traversed 
the  country  even  to  the  frontiers  of  China.  After  ten  years 
he  returned  to  England,  where  bis  inventive  skill  and  expe- 
rience found  a  fitting  field  in  the  service  of  the  Admiralty,  in 
1  Proceedings  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science,  xx.  527.    (1884.) 


452  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

which  he  attained  the  post  of  Inspector-General  of  Naval 
Works.  Among  the  services  he  rendered  was  that  of  bring- 
ing to  England  the  distinguished  engineer  Isambard  Mark 
Brunei.  In  the  year  1805,  General  Bentham  was  sent  by  the 
Admiralty  to  St.  Petersburg,  to  superintend  the  building  in 
Russia  of  vessels  for  the  British  navy.  He  took  his  family 
with  him  ;  and  there  began  the  education  of  George  Bentham, 
in  the  fifth  year  of  his  age,  under  the  charge  of  a  Russian 
lady  who  could  speak  no  English,  where  he  learned  to  con- 
verse fluently  in  Russian,  French,  and  German,  besides  ac- 
quiring the  rudiments  of  Latin  as  taught  by  a  Russian  priest. 
On  the  way  back  to  England,  two  or  three  years  later,  the 
detention  of  a  month  or  two  in  Sweden  gave  opportunity  for 
learning  enough  of  Swedish  to  converse  in  that  language  and 
to  read  it  with  tolerable  ease  in  after  life.  Returning  to 
England,  the  family  settled  at  Hampstead,  and  the  children 
pursued  their  studies  under  private  tutors.  In  the  years 
1812-13,  during  the  excitement  produced  by  the  French  in- 
vasion of  Russia  and  the  burning  of  Moscow,  our  young  poly- 
glot "  budded  into  an  author,  by  translating  (along  with  his 
brother  and  sister)  and  contributing  to  a  London  magazine  a 
series  of  articles  from  the  Russian  newspapers,  detailing  the 
operations  of  the  armies."  In  1814,  upon  the  downfall  of 
Napoleon,  the  Bentham  family  crossed  over  to  France,  pre- 
pared for  a  long  stay,  remained  in  the  country  (at  Tours, 
Saumur,  and  Paris)  during  the  hundred  days  preceding 
Napoleon's  final  overthrow,  and  in  1816  Sir  Samuel  Bent- 
ham set  out  upon  a  prolonged  and  singular  family  tour,  en 
caravane,  through  the  western  and  southern  departments  of 
France.  To  quote  from  the  published  account  from  which 
most  of  these  biographical  details  are  drawn,  and  which  were 
taken  from  Mr.  Bentham's  own  memoranda  1  — 

"  The  cortege  consisted  of  a  two-horse  coach  fitted  up  as  a 
sleeping  apartment ;  a  long,  low,  two-wheeled,  one-horse  spring 
van  for  General  and  Mrs.  Bentham,  furnished  with  a  library 
and  piano  ;  and  another,  also  furnished,  for  his  daughters  and 
their  governess.  The  plan  followed  was  to  travel  by  day 
1  An  article  in  "Nature,"  Oct.  2,  1884,  by  Sir  Joseph  Dalton  Hooker. 


GEORGE  BENTHAM.  453 

from  one  place  of  interest  to  another,  bivouacking  at  night 
by  the  road,  or  in  the  garden  of  a  friend,  or  in  the  precincts 
of  the  prefectures,  to  which  latter  he  had  credentials  from 
the  authorities  in  the  capital.  In  this  way  he  visited  Orleans, 
Tours,  Angouleme,  Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  Montpellier,  and 
finally  Montauban,  where  a  lengthened  stay  was  made  in  a 
country  house  hired  for  the  purpose.  From  Montauban  (the 
cortege  having  broken  down  in  someway)  they  proceeded  still 
by  private  conveyances  to  Carcassonne,  Narbonnes,  Nimes, 
Tarascon,  Marseilles,  Toulon,  Hyeres." 

It  was  in  the  early  part  of  this  tour  that  young  Bentham  "s 
attention  was  first  turned  to  botany.  Happening  to  take  up 
De  Candolle's  edition  of  Lamarck's  "  Flore  Franeaise,"  which 
his  mother,  who  was  fond  of  the  subject,  had  just  purchased, 
he  was  struck  with  the  methodical  analytical  tables,  and  he 
proceeded  immediately  to  apply  them  to  the  first  plant  he 
could  lay  hold  of.  "His  success  led  him  to  pursue  the  diver- 
sion of  naming  every  plant  he  met  with."  During  his  long 
stay  at  Montauban  he  entered  as  a  student  in  the  Protestant 
theological  school  of  that  town,  pursuing  "with  ardor  the 
courses  of  mathematics,  Hebrew,  and  comparative  philology, 
the  latter  a  favorite  study  in  after  life,"  and  at  home  giving 
himself  to  music,  in  which  he  was  remarkably  gifted,  to  Span- 
ish, to  botany,  and,  with  great  relish,  to  society.  Soon  after, 
the  family  was  established  upon  a  property  of  2000  acres, 
purchased  by  his  father  in  the  vicinity  of  Montpellier.  Here 
he  resumed  the  intimacy  of  his  boyhood  with  John  Stuart 
Mill,  who  was  five  years  his  junior,  and  whose  life-long  taste 
for  botany  was  probably  fixed  during  this  residence  of  seven 
or  eight  months  in  the  Bentham  family  in  the  year  1820. 
About  this  time  Bentham  occupied  himself  with  ornithology 
and  then  with  entomology,  finding  time,  however,  for  another 
line  of  study  ;  for  at  the  age  of  twenty  he  had  begun  a  trans- 
lation into  French  of  bis  Uncle  Jeremy's  **  Chrestomathia," 
which*  was  published  in  Paris  some  years  afterwards ;  and  he 
soon  after  translated  also  the  essay  on  ••  Nomenclature  and 
Classification."  This  was  followed  by  his  own  "  ESssai  but  la 
Nomenclature  et   Classification,"  published  in   Paris.     This, 


454  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

his  original  scientific  production,  was  one  of  some  mark,  for 
it  is  praised  by  Stanley-Jevons  in  his  recent  "  History  of  the 
Sciences." 

On  attaining  his  majority,  his  elder  and  only  brother  having 
died,  he  was  placed  in  management  of  his  father's  Provencal 
estate,  an  employment  which  he  took  up  with  alacrity  and 
prosecuted  with  success,  turning  to  practical  account  his  me- 
thodical habits,  his  indomitable  industry,  and  his  familiarity 
with  Provencal  country  life  and  language.  The  latter  he 
spoke  like  a  native.  A  language  always  seemed  to  come 
to  him  without  effort.  Meanwhile  his  leisure  hours  were 
given  to  philosophical  studies,  his  holidays  to  botanical  excur- 
sions into  the  Cevennes  and  the  Pyrenees.  In  the  year  1853, 
a  visit  to  England  upon  business  relating  to  his  father's  French 
estate,  where  it  seemed  probable  that  he  was  to  spend  his  life, 
was  followed  by  circumstances  which  gave  him  back  to  his 
native  country.  He  brought  to  his  Uncle  Jeremy  a  French 
translation  of  the  latter's  "  Chrestomathia  "  ;  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Sir  James  Edward  Smith,  Robert  Brown,  Lam- 
bert, Don,  and  the  other  English  botanists  of  the  day ;  visited 
Sir  William,  then  Professor  Hooker,  at  Glasgow,  and  Walker 
Arnott  in  Edinburgh ;  took  the  latter  with  him  the  next  sum- 
mer to  France,  where  the  two  botanists  herborized  together 
in  Languedoc  and  the  Pyrenees  ;  and,  returning  to  London,  he 
accepted  his  uncle's  pressing  invitation  to  remain  and  devote 
a  portion  of  his  time  to  the  preparation  of  the  latter's  manu- 
scripts for  the  press,  at  the  same  time  pursuing  legal  studies  at 
Lincoln's  Inn.  He  was  in  due  time  called  to  the  bar,  and  in 
1832  he  held  his  first  and  last  brief.  In  that  year  Jeremy 
Bentham  died,  bequeathing  most  of  his  property  to  his  nephew. 
This  was  much  less  than  was  expected,  owing  to  bad  manage- 
ment on  his  uncle's  part  and  to  the  extravagant  sums  spent 
by  his  executors  in  the  publication  of  the  philosopher's  post- 
humous work.  But  it  sufficed,  in  connection  with  the  pater- 
nal inheritance,  which  fell  to  him  in  the  year  previous,  for  the 
modest  independence  which  allowed  of  undistracted  devotion 
to  his  favorite  studies.  These  were  for  a  time  divided  be- 
tween botany,  jurisprudence,  and  logic,  not  to  speak  of  edi- 


GEORGE  BENTHAM.  455 

torial  work  upon  his  father's  papers  relating  to  the  manage- 
ment of  the  navy  and  the  administration  of  the  national  dock- 
yards. 

The  first  publication  was  botanical,  and  was  published  in 
Paris,  in  the  year  1826,  —  his  "Catalogue  des  Plantes  Indi- 
genes des  Pyrenees  et  du  Bas  Languedoc."  To  this  is  pre- 
fixed an  interesting  narrative  of  a  botanical  tour  in  the  Pyre- 
nees, and  some  remarks  upon  the  mode  of  preparing  Buch 
catalogues  in  order  to  bring  out  their  greatest  utility.  — 
remarks  which  already  evince  the  wisdom  for  which  be  was 
distinguished  in  after  years.  Fie  also  reformed  and  reelab- 
orated  our  difficult  genera  of  the  district,  —  Cerastium,  Oro- 
banche,  Helianthemum,  and  Medicago.  The  next,  perhaps, 
was  an  article  upon  codification  —  wholly  disagreeing  with 
his  uncle  —  which  attracted  the  attention  of  Brougham, 
Hume,  and  O'Connell;  also  one  upon  the  laws  affecting  lar- 
ceny, which  Sir  Robert  Peel  complemented  and  made  use  ni\ 
and  another  on  the  law  of  real  property. 

But  his  most  considerable  work  of  the  period  received  scant 
attention  at  the  time  from  those  most  interested  in  the  subject, 
and  passed  from  its  birth  into  oblivion,  from  which  only  in 
these  later  years  it  has  been  rescued,  yet  without  word  or  sign 
from  its  author.  This  work  (of  287  octavo  pages)  was  pub- 
lished in  London  in  1827,  under  the  title  of  "  Outline  of  a 
New  System  of  Logic,  with  a  critical  examination  of  \h\ 
Whately's  Elements  of  Logic."  It  was  in  this  book  that  the 
quantification  of  the  predicate  was  first  systematically  applied, 
in  such  wise  that  Stanley-Jevons  l  declares  it  to  be  "  undoubt- 
edly the  most  fruitful  discovery  made  in  abstract  logical  Bci- 
ence  since  the  time  of  Aristotle."  Before  sixty  copies  of  the 
book  had  been  sold,  the  publisher  became  bankrupt,  and  the 
whole  impression  of  this  work  of  a  young  and  unknown  author 
was  sold  for  waste  paper.  One  of  the  extant  copies,  however, 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  distinguished  philosopher  Sir 
AVilliam  Hamilton,  to  whom  the  discovery  of  tin-  quantifica- 
tion of  the  predicate  was  credited,  and  who.  in  claiming  it, 
brought  "an  acrimonious  charge  of  plagiarism"  against  Pro- 

1  In  "Contemporary  Review,"  xxi.,  187H,  p.  828. 


456  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

fessor  De  Morgan  upon  this  very  subject.  Yet  this  very 
book  of  Mr.  Bentham  is  one  of  the  ten  placed  by  title  at  the 
head  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  article  on  logic  in  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  for  April,  1833,  is  once  or  twice  referred  to  in 
the  article,  and,  a  dozen  years  later,  in  the  course  of  the  con- 
troversy with  De  Morgan,  Sir  William  alluded  to  this  article 
as  containing  the  germs  of  his  discovery.  We  may  imagine 
the  avidity  with  which  De  Morgan,  injuriously  attacked,  would 
have  seized  upon  Mr.  Bentham's  book  if  he  had  known  of  it. 
It  is  not  so  easy  to  understand  how  Mr.  Bentham,  although 
now  absorbed  in  botanical  researches,  could  have  overlooked 
this  controversy  in  the  "  Athenaeum,"  or  how,  if  he  knew  of  it, 
he  could  have  kept  silence.  It  was  only  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1850  that  Mr.  Warlow  sent  from  the  coast  of  Wales  a 
letter  to  the  "  Athenaeum,"  in  which  he  refers  to  Bentham's 
book  as  one  which  had  long  before  anticipated  this  interesting 
discovery.  Although  Hamilton  himself  never  offered  expla- 
nation of  his  now  unpleasant  position  (for  the  note  obliquely 
referring  to  the  matter  in  the  second  edition  of  his  Discus- 
sions is  not  an  explanation),  Mr.  Blaine  did  (in  the  "  Athe- 
naeum for  February  1,  1851)  immediately  endeavor  to  dis- 
credit the  importance  of  Bentham's  work,  and  again  in  1873 
("  Contemporary  Review,"  xxi.),  in  reply  to  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's reclamation  of  Bentham's  discovery.  To  this  Stanley- 
Jevons  made  reply  in  the  same  volume  (pp.  821-824)  ;  and 
later,  in  his  "  Principles  of  Science  "  (ii.  387),  this  competent 
and  impartial  judge,  in  speaking  of  the  connection  of  Ben- 
tham's work  "  with  the  great  discovery  of  the  quantification 
of  the  predicate,"  adds  :  — 

"  I  must  continue  to  hold  that  the  principle  of  quantification 
is  explicitly  stated  by  Mr.  Bentham  ;  and  it  must  be  regarded 
as  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  logic,  that  Hamilton, 
while  vindicating  in  1847  his  own  claims  to  originality  and 
priority  as  against  the  scheme  of  De  Morgan,  should  have 
overlooked  the  much  earlier  and  more  closely  related  discov- 
eries of  Bentham." 

It  must  be  that  Hamilton  reviewed  Bentham's  book  without 
reading  it  through,  or  that  its  ideas  did  not  at  the  time  leave 


GEORGE   BEX  Til  AM.  457 

any  conscious  impression  upon  the  reviewer's  mind,  yet  may 
have  fructified  afterwards. 

After  his  uncle's  death  in  1832,  Mr.  Bentham  gave  his  undi- 
vided attention  to  botany.  He  became  a  Fellow  of  the  Lin- 
mean  Society  in  1828.  Robert  Brown  soon  after  presented 
his  name  to  the  Royal  Society,  but  withdrew  it  before  the  elec- 
tion, to  mark  the  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  scientific  men 
with  the  management  of  the  society  when  a  royal  duke  was 
made  president.  Consequently  he  did  not  become  F.  R.  S. 
until  1862.  In  1829,  when  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society 
was  much  embarrassed,  he  accepted  the  position  of  honorary 
secretary,  with  his  friend  Lindley  as  associate.  Under  their 
management  it  was  soon  extricated  from  its  perilous  c<m<li- 
tion,  attained  its  highest  prosperity  and  renown,  and  did  its 
best  work  for  horticulture  and  botany.  In  1833  he  married 
the  daughter  of  Sir  Harford  Brydges,  for  many  years  British 
ambassador  in  Persia,  and  the  next  year  he  took  up  bis  resi- 
dence in  the  house  in  Queen  Square  Place,  Westminster,  inher- 
ited from  his  uncle,  in  which  Jeremy  Bentham  and  his  own 
paternal  grandfather  had  dwelt  for  almost  a  century.  The 
house  no  longer  exists,  but  upon  its  site  stands  the  western  wing 
of  the  ''Queen  Anne  Mansions."  The  summer  of  ls:>»)  was 
passed  in  Germany,  at  points  of  botanical  interest  and  wher- 
ever the  principal  herbaria  are  preserved,  the  whole  winter  in 
Vienna.  Some  account  of  this  tour,  and  interesting  memo- 
randa of  the  botanists,  gardens,  and  herbaria  visited,  com- 
municated in  familiar  letters  to  Sir  William  Hooker,  were 
printed  at  the  time  (without  the  author's  name)  in  tin*  second 
volume  of  the  "Companion  to  the  Botanical  Magazine." 
Similar  visits  for  botanical  investigation,  mingled  with  recrea- 
tion, were  made  almost  every  summer  to  various  parts  oi  the 
continent;  in  one  of  them  lie  revisited  the  scenes  of  hifl  early 
boyhood  in  Russia,  traveled  with  Mrs.  Bentham  to  the  fair  at 
Nijni-Novgorod,  and  thence  to  Odessa,  by  the  rude  Litter-like 
conveyances  of  the  country. 

In  1842  he  removed  with  his  herbarium  to  Pontrilas  House 
in  Herefordshire,  an  Elizabethan  mansion  belonging  to  hifl 
brother-in-law,  and  combined  there  the  life  of  a  count ry  squire 


458  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

with  that  of  a  diligent  student,  until  1854,  when,  returning  to 
London,  he  presented  his  herbarium  and  botanical  library  to 
the  Royal  Gardens  at  Kew,  where  they  were  added  to  the 
still  larger  collections  of  Sir  William  Hooker.  After  a  short 
interval  Mr.  Bentham  took  up  his  residence  at  No.  25  Wilton 
Place,  between  Belgrave  Square  and  Hyde  Park,  which  was 
his  home  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Thence,  autumn  holidays 
excepted,  with  perfect  regularity  for  five  days  in  the  week  he 
resorted  to  Kew,  pursued  his  botanical  investigations  from  ten 
to  four  o'clock,  then,  returning,  he  wrote  out  the  notes  of  his 
day's  work  before  dinner,  hardly  ever  breaking  his  fast  in  the 
long  interval.  With  such  methodical  habits,  with  freedom 
from  professional  or  administrative  functions  which  consume 
the  precious  time  of  most  botanists,  with  steady  devotion  to  his 
chosen  work,  and  with  nearly  all  authentic  materials  and 
needful  appliances  at  hand  or  within  reach,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  he  should  have  undertaken  and  have  so  well  accomplished 
such  a  vast  amount  of  work ;  and  he  has  the  crowning  merit 
and  happy  fortune  of  having  completed  all  that  he  undertook. 

Nor  did  he  decline  duties  of  administration  and  counsel 
which  could  rightly  be  asked  of  him.  The  presidency  of  the 
Linngean  Society,  which  he  accepted  and  held  for  eleven  years 
(1863  to  1874),  was  no  sinecure  to  him  ;  for  he  is  said  to  have 
taken  on  no  small  part  of  the  work  of  secretary,  treasurer,  and 
botanical  editor.  Somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  his  younger 
associates,  who  knew  him  only  as  the  recluse  student,  he  made 
proof  in  age  of  the  fine  talent  for  business  and  the  conduct  of 
affairs  which  had  distinguished  his  prime  in  the  management 
of  the  Horticultural  Society ;  and  in  his  annual  presidential 
addresses,  which  form  a  volume  of  permanent  value,  his  dis- 
cussions of  general  as  well  as  of  particular  scientific  questions 
and  interests  bring  out  prominently  the  breadth  and  fullness 
of  his  knowledge  and  the  soundness  of  his  judgment. 

The  years  which  followed  his  retirement  from  the  chair  of 
the  Linngean  Society,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  were  no  less 
laborious  or  less  productive  than  those  preceding ;  at  the  age 
of  eighty  (as  the  writer  can  testify)  the  diminution  of  bodily 
strength  had  wrought  no  obvious  abatement  of  mental  power 


GEORGE  BE  NTH  AM.  459 

and  not  much  of  facility ;  and  he  was  able  to  finish  in  the 
spring  of  1883  the  great  work  upon  which  he  was  engaged. 
As  was  natural,  his  corporeal  strength  gave  way  when  his  work 
was  done.  After  a  year  and  a  half  of  increasing  debility  he 
died  simply  of  old  age  —  the  survivor  of  his  wife  for  three  or 
four  years,  the  last  of  the  Benthams,  for  he  had  no  children, 
nor  any  collateral  descendants  of  the  name. 

A  large  part  of  his  modest  fortune  was  bequeathed  to  the 
Linnaean  Society,  to  the  Koyal  Society,  for  its  scientific  relief 
fund,  and  in  other  trusts  for  the  promotion  of  the  science  to 
which  his  long  life  was  so  perseveringly  devoted. 

The  record  of  no  small  and  no  unimportant  part  of  a  natu- 
ralist's work  is  to  be  found  in  scattered  papers,  and  those  of 
George  Bentham  are  quite  too  numerous  for  individual  men- 
tion. The  series  begins  with  an  article  upon  Labiatce,  pub- 
lished in  "  Linnaea  "  in  1831 ;  it  closes  with  one  in  the  "  Jour- 
nal of  the  Linnaean  Society,"  read  April  19,  1883,  indicating 
the  parts  taken  by  the  two  authors  in  the  elaboration  of  the 
"  Genera  Plantarum,"  then  completed.  Counting  from  the 
date  of  the  Catalogue  of  Pyrenean  plants,  1826,  there  are 
fifty-seven  years  of  authorship.  His  first  substantial  volume 
in  botany  was  the  "  Labiatarum  Genera  et  Species,  or  a  de- 
scription of  the  genera  and  species  of  plants  of  the  order 
I/abiatoB,  with  their  general  history,  characters,  affinities,  and 
geographical  distribution,"  an  octavo  of  almost  800  pages,  of 
which  the  first  part  was  published  in  1832,  the  Lasl  in  1836. 
He  found  even  the  European  part  of  this  large  order  in  niueli 
confusion;  his  monograph  left  its  seventeen  hundred  and 
more  of  species  so  well  arranged  (under  1<»7  genera  and  in 
tribes  of  his  own  creation)  that  there  was  little  t<>  alter,  ex- 
cept as  to  the  rank  of  certain  groups,  when  he  revised  them 
for  the  "Prodromus"  in  1848,  and  finally  revised  the  genera 
(now  increased  to  136,  and  with  estimated  Bpeeiea  almost 
doubled)  for  the  "  Genera  Plantarum  "  in  1876,  Although 
the  work  of  a  beginner,  it  took  rank  as  the  besl  extanl  mono- 
graph of  its  kind,  namely,  one  of  a  large  natural  order,  with- 
out plates.  In  it  Mr.  Bentham  first  set  the  example  in  any 
large  way,  of  consulting  all  the  available  herbaria   lor  the   in- 


460  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

spection  and  determination  of  type-specimens.  To  this  end 
he  made  journeys  to  the  continent  every  year  from  1830  to 
1834,  visiting  nearly  all  the  public  and  larger  private  herbaria. 

In  the  years  during  which  the  monograph  of  Labiatce  was 
in  progress,  Mr.  Bentham  elaborated  and  published  the  earlier 
of  the  papers  which  have  particularly  connected  his  name 
with  North  American  botany.  These  are,  first,  the  reports 
on  some  of  the  new  ornamental  plants  raised  in  the  Horticul- 
tural Society's  Garden  from  seeds  collected  in  western  North 
America  by  Douglas,  under  the  auspices  of  that  society,  by 
which  were  first  made  known  to  botanists  and  florists  so  many 
of  the  characteristic  genera  and  species  of  Oregon  and  Cali- 
fornia, now  familiar  in  gardens,  Gilias  and  Nemophilas,  Lim- 
nanthes,  Phacelias,  Brodiaeas,  Calochorti,  Eschscholtzias,  Col- 
linsias,  and  the  like ;  then  the  monograph  of  Hydrophyllece 
(1834),  followed  the  next  year  by  that  on  Hosackia,  and  that 
on  the  Eriogonece,  —  all  American  and  chiefly  North  Ameri- 
can plants,  —  the  first-fruits  of  a  great  harvest  which  even 
now  has  not  wholly  been  gathered  in  ;  the  field  is  so  vast, 
though  the  laborers  have  not  been  few.  Later,  the  "  Plantae 
Hartwegianae,"  an  octavo  volume  begun  in  1839,  but  finished 
in  1857  with  the  Californian  collections ;  and  in  1844,  the 
"  Botany  of  the  Voyage  of  the  Sulphur,"  in  quarto,  the  first 
part  of  which  relates  to  Californian  botany.  The  various  pa- 
pers upon  South  American  botany  are  even  more  numerous ; 
one  of  them  being  that  in  which  Heliamphora,  of  British 
Guiana,  a  new  genus  of  Pitcher  Plants,  of  the  Sarracenia 
family,  was  established. 

Bentham's  labors  upon  the  great  order  LeguminoscB  began 
early,  with  his  "  Commentationes  de  Leguminosarum  Generi- 
bus,"  published  in  the  Annals  of  the  Vienna  Museum,  being 
the  work  of  a  winter's  holiday  (1836-7)  passed  in  that  capital 
in  the  herbarium  then  directed  by  Endlicher.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  series  of  papers,  mostly  monographs  of  genera, 
in  Hooker's  "Journal  of  Botany,"  in  the  "Journal  of  the 
Linnsean  Society,"  and  elsewhere,  by  the  elaboration  of  the 
order  for  the  imperial  "  Flora  Brasiliensis,"  and  later,  by  the 
"  Revision  of  the  Genus  Cassia,"  and  that  of  the   suborder 


GEORGE  BENTHAM.  461 

Mimosece,  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Linnasan  Society,"  the 
latter  (a  quarto  volume  in  size)  published  as  late  as  the  jrear 
1875.     Both  are  perfect  models  of  monograpkical  work. 

An  important  series  of  monographs  in  another  and  more 
condensed  form  was  contributed  to  DeCandolle'a  "Prodro- 
mus,"  namely,  the  Tribe  Ericeazm  the  seventh  volume,  the 
Polemoniacece  in  the  ninth,  the  Scrophulariacece  in  the  tenth, 
the  Labiatce  forming  the  greater  part  of  the  twelfth,  and  the 
Eriogonece  in  the  fourteenth  ;  these  together  filling  LI 33 
pages  according  to  the  surviving  editor.  If  not  quite  the 
largest  collaborator  of  the  De  Candolles,  as  counted  in  pi 
he  was  so  in  the  number  of  plants  described,  and  his  work 
was  of  the  best.  It  was  also  ready  in  time,  which  is  more 
than  can  be  said  of  the  collaborators  in  general. 

There  are  few  parts  of  the  world  upon  the  botany  of  which 
Mr.  Bentham  has  not  touched  —  Tropical  America,  in  the  am- 
ple collections  of  Mr.  Spruce,  and  those  of  Hartweg,  distrib- 
uted, and  the  former  partly  and  the  latter  wholly  determined 
by  him,  as  also  Hinds'  collections  made  in  the  voyage  of  tin- 
Sulphur,  besides  what  has  already  been  adverted  to  :  Polj  oe- 
sia,  from  Hinds'  and  Barclay's  collections;  Western  Tropical 
Africa,  in  the  Niger  Flora,  most  of  the  ''Flora  Nigritiana" 
being  from  his  hand ;  the  "Flora  Hongkongensis,"  in  which 
he  began  the  series  of  British  colonial  floras;  and  finally  that 
vast  work,  the  "  Flora  Australiensis,"  in  seven  volumes,  which 
the  author  began  when  he  was  over  sixty  years  old  and  lin- 
ished  when  he  was  seventy-seven.  Nor  did  he  neglect  thr  cul- 
tivation of  the  narrow  and  more  exhausted  lid. I  of  British 
botany.  His  "Handbook  of  the  Briti>h  Flora,"  for  the  nse  of 
beginners  and  amateurs,  published  in  1858,  ha-  gone  through 
four  large  editions.  Its  special  object  was  to  enable  a  h« --in- 
ner or  a  mere  amateur,  with  little  or  no  previous  scientific 
knowdedge  and  without  assistance,  to  work  out  understand- 
ingly  the  characters  by  which  the  plants  of  a  limited  flora  may 
be  distinguished  from  each  other,  these  being  expressed  as 
much  as  possible  in  ordinary  language,  or  in  such  technical 
terms  as  could  be  fully  explained  in  the  hook  itself  and  easily 
apprehended  by  the  learner.     The   immediate  and   continued 


462  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

popularity  of  this  handy  volume,  bringing  the  light  of  full 
knowledge  and  sound  methods  to  guide  the  beginner's  way,  il- 
lustrates the  advantage  of  having  elementary  works  prepared 
by  a  master  of  the  subject,  whenever  the  master  will  take  the 
necessary  pains.  To  the  same  end,  the  author  prepared 
for  this  volume  an  excellent  and  terse  introduction  to  struc- 
tural and  descriptive  botany,  which  has  been  prefixed  to 
all  the  Colonial  Floras.  In  the  first  edition  to  this  British 
Flora  it  was  attempted  to  use  or  to  give  English  names  to  the 
genera  and  species  throughout.  This  could  be  done  only  in 
such  a  familiar  and  well-trodden  field  as  Britain,  where  al- 
most every  plant  was  familiar ;  but  even  here  it  failed,  and  in 
later  editions  the  popular  names  were  relegated  to  a  subordi- 
nate position. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Mr.  Bentham  was  over  sixty  years 
old  when  he  undertook  the  "  Flora  Australiensis,"  and  he 
was  seventy-seven  when  he  brought  this  vast  work  to  com- 
pletion, assisted  only  in  notes  and  preliminary  studies  by 
Baron  von  Mueller  of  Melbourne.  About  the  same  time  he 
courageously  undertook  the  still  greater  task  of  a  new  "  Gen- 
era Plantarum,"  to  be  worked  out,  not,  like  that  of  Endlicher, 
mainly  by  the  compilation  of  published  characters  into  a  com- 
mon formula,  but  by  an  actual  examination  of  the  extant  ma- 
terials, primarily  those  of  the  Kew  herbarium, — this  work, 
however,  in  conjunction  with  his  intimate  associate,  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker.  This  work  is  the  only  "  joint  production  "  in  which 
Mr.  Bentham  ever  engaged.  The  relations  and  position  of 
the  two  authors  made  the  association  every  way  satisfactory, 
and  the  magnitude  of  the  task  made  it  necessary.  The  train- 
ing and  the  experience  of  the  two  associates  were  very  differ- 
ent and  in  some  ways  complemental,  one  having  the  greatest 
herbarium  knowledge  of  any  living  botanist,  the  other,  the 
widest  and  keenest  observer  of  vegetable  life  under  "  what- 
ever climes  the  sun's  bright  circle  warms,"  as  well  as  of 
antarctic  regions  which  it  warms  very  little.  It  would  be 
expected,  on  the  principle  "  juniores  ad  labores,"  that  the 
laboring  oar  would  be  taken  by  the  younger  of  the  pair.  It 
was  long  and  severe  work  for  both ;  but  the  veteran  was  hap- 


GEORGE  BENTHAM.  463 

pily  quite  free  from,  and  bis  companion  heavily  weighted  by, 
onerous  official  duties  and  cares ;  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that 
about  two  thirds  of  the  orders  and  genera  were  elaborated  by 
Mr.  Bentham.  In  April,  1883,  the  completion  of  the  work 
(£.  e.,  of  the  genera  of  Phamogamous  plants,  to  which  it  was 
limited)  closed  this  long  and  exemplary  botanical  career; 
and  the  short  account  which  he  gave  to  the  Linnaean  Society 
on  the  nineteenth  of  that  month,  specifying  the  conduct  of 
the  work  and  the  part  of  the  respective  authors,  was  his  last 
publication. 

In  this  connection  mention  should  also  be  made  of  tin  es- 
says (which  he  simply  calls  "  Notes  ")  upon  some  of  the  more 
important  orders  which  he  investigated  for  the  "Genera 
Plantarum,"  — the  Comjiositce,  the  Campanulaceous  and  the 
Oleaceous  orders,  the  Monocotyledonece  as  to  classification, 
the  Eupliorbiacem,  the  Orchis  family,  the  Cyperacem  and  the 
Graminece.  These  are  not  mere  abstracts,  issued  in  advance, 
but  critical  dissertations  with  occasional  discussions  of  some 
general  or  particular  question  of  terminology  or  morphology. 
When  collected  they  form  a  stout  volume,  which,  along  with 
the  volume  made  up  of  his  anniversary  addresses  when  presi- 
dent of  the  Linnaean  Society,  and  the  paper  on  the  progress 
and  state  of  systematic  botany,  read  to  the  British  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1874,  should  be  much 
considered  by  those  who  would  form  a  just  idea  of  the  large- 
ness of  Mr.  Bentham's  knowledge  and  the  character  of  his 
work. 

It  will  have  been  seen  that  Mr.  Bentham  confined  himself 
to  the  Phsenogamia,  to  morphological,  taxonomical,  and  de- 
scriptive work,  not  paying  attention  to  the  Cryptogainia  below 
the  Ferns,  nor  to  vegetable  anatomy,  physiology,  or  palaeon- 
tology, lie  was  what  will  now  be  called  a  botanist  ot  the  old 
school.  Up  to  middle  age  and  beyond  he  used  rather  t«»  re- 
gard himself  as  an  amateur,  pursuing  botany  as  an  intellec- 
tual exercise.  "  There  are  diversities  of  gifts  ;  **  perhaps  do 
professional  naturalist  ever  made  more  of  his.  certainly  no 
one  ever  labored  more  diligently,  nor  indeed  more  successfully 
over  so  wide  a  field,  within  these  chosen  lines.     For  extent 


464  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

and  variety  of  good  work  accomplished,  for  an  intuitive  sense 
of  method,  for  lucidity  and  accuracy,  and  for  insight,  George 
Bentham  may  fairly  be  compared  with  Linnaeus,  De  Candolle, 
and  Robert  Brown. 

His  long  life  was  a  perfect  and  precious  example,  much 
needed  in  this  age,  of  persevering  and  thorough  devotion  to 
science  while  unconstrained  as  well  as  untrammeled  by  pro- 
fessional duty  or  necessity.  For  those  endowed  with  leisure, 
to  "  live  laborious  days  "  in  her  service,  it  is  not  a  common 
achievement. 

The  tribute  which  the  American  Academy  of  Sciences  pays 
to  the  memory  of  a  deceased  foreign  honorary  member 
might  here  fittingly  conclude.  But  one  who  knew  him  long 
and  well  may  be  allowed  to  add  a  word  upon  the  personal 
characteristics  of  the  subject  of  this  memorial ;  the  more  so 
that  he  is  himself  greatly  indebted  for  generous  help.  For, 
long  ago,  when  in  special  need  of  botanical  assistance,  Mr. 
Bentham  invited  him  and  his  companion  to  his  house  at  Pon- 
trilas,  and  devoted  the  greater  part  of  his  time  for  two  months 
to  this  service.  Mr.  Bentham's  great  reserve  and  dryness  in 
general  intercourse,  and  his  avoidance  of  publicity,  might 
give  the  impression  of  an  unsympathetic  nature ;  but  he  was 
indeed  most  amiable,  warm-hearted,  and  even  genial,  "  the 
kindest  of  helpmates,"  the  most  disinterested  of  friends. 


AUGUSTUS   FENDLER.1 

After  Dr.  Engelmann's  death,  the  beginning  of  a  notice 
of  Mr.  Fendler  was  found  upon  his  table,  from  which  it  was 
learned  that  he  had  died  at  Trinidad,  some  time  previous. 
Inquiries  sent  to  the  Port  of  Spain,  where  he  had  for  several 
years  resided,  remain  unanswered.  An  autobiographical  ac- 
count which  he  addressed  to  a  correspondent  (and  which,  with 
some  of  his  letters,  we  hope  will  before  long  be  printed  )  en- 
ables us  to  state  that  Mr.  Fendler  was  born  at  Gumbinnen, 
on  the  easternmost  borders  of  Prussia,  January  10,  1813,  lost 
his  father  in  infancy,  was  sent  to  the  gymnasium  of  the  town 
when  twelve  years  old,  but  was  at  sixteen  apprenticed  to  the 
town  clerk,  where,  perhaps,  he  perfected  the  neat  and  clear 
handwriting  with  which  his  correspondents  are  familiar. 
Having  a  fondness  for  mathematics  and  chemistry,  he  ob- 
tained in  1834,  upon  examination,  a  nomination  to  the  Royal 
Polytechnic  School  at  Berlin,  but  relinquished  it  after  a  year 
on  account  of  delicate  health.  In  183G  he  came  from  Bremen 
to  Baltimore,  "  with  a  couple  of  dollars  in  his  pocket."  worked 
in  a  tan-yard  in  Philadelphia,  then  in  a  lamp  factory  in  New 
York;  in  1838  he  traveled  in  the  most  economical  way  to 
St.  Louis,  which  required  thirty  days,  and  was  employed  by  a 
lamp-maker  who  made  "  spirit-gas  "  for  lighting  public-houses, 
coal-sras  beinsr  then  unknown  so  far  west.  Soon  after,  he 
made  his  way  to  New  Orleans  and  to  Texas,  whore  he  was 
witness  to  the  ravages  of  yellow  fever  in  the  summer  and  fall 
of  1839.  He  returned  to  Illinois,  broken  in  health  and  empty 
in  purse,  taught  school  for  some  time  ;  then,  the  spirit  of  wan- 
dering and  of  solitude  coming  strongly  upon  him,  he  took  pos- 
session of  an  uninhabited  island  in  the  Missouri  River,  about 
three  hundred  miles  above  St.  Louis,  where  he  enjoyed  a  her- 
mit's life  for  six  months,  and  until  a  great  spring  rise  of  the 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxix.  1G9.     (1886.) 


466  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

river  threatened  to  sweep  away  his  cabin,  when  he  took  to  his 
canoe,  and  dropped  down  the  stream  among  the  floating  logs 
and  masses  of  ice.  In  1844  he  returned  to  Old  Prussia  on  a 
visit,  at  Konigsberg  made  the  acquaintance  of  Ernest  Meyer, 
the  professor  of  botany,  and  learned  from  him  —  what  he 
would  have  been  most  glad  to  know  before  —  that  dried  speci- 
mens of  plants  for  the  herbarium  might  be  disposed  of  at  a 
reasonable  price.  Returning  to  St.  Louis,  he  began  to  collect 
plants  in  this  view,  took  the  botanical  specimens  to  Dr.  Engel- 
mann,  who  gave  him  botanical  assistance  and  encouragement. 
In  1846  Dr.  Engelmann  and  the  writer  of  this  notice  obtained 
permission  for  the  transportation  of  Mr.  Fendler  and  his  lug- 
gage along  with  the  body  of  United  States  troops  which  took 
possession  of  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico  ;  there  he  remained  for 
about  a  year,  and  made  his  well-known  New  Mexican  collec- 
tion, the  first-fruits  of  the  botany  of  that  interesting  district. 
In  1849  he  attempted  another  western  botanical  expedition, 
this  time  with  Salt  Lake  in  view.  But  on  the  plains  he  lost 
all  his  drying-paper  in  a  flood  of  the  Little  Blue  River ;  and 
he  returned  to  St.  Louis,  to  find  that  all  his  collections,  books, 
journals,  and  other  possessions  had  been  burnt  in  the  great 
conflagration  which  had  just  devastated  that  city.  He  now 
sought  a  different  climate,  and,  at  the  approach  of  winter, 
went  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  for  four  months,  made  at 
Chagres  an  interesting  botanical  collection,  returned  by  way 
of  New  Orleans  to  Arkansas,  and  to  Memphis  on  the  Ten- 
nessee side  of  the  river,  where  for  three  years  he  carried  on 
the  camphene-light  business,  botanizing  in  the  vicinity  when 
he  could.  In  1854,  the  introduction  of  gas  having  made  his 
occupation  unprofitable,  and  a  craving  for  new  scenes  being 
strong  upon  him,  he  sailed  for  La  Guayra,  went  up  to  Carac- 
cas  and  thence  to  Colonia  Tovar,  6500  feet  above  the  sea, 
built  his  cabin  on  the  mountain  side,  where  he  lived  four  or 
five  years  and  amassed  his  large  and  fine  Venezuelan  collec- 
tions of  dried  plants,  so  well  known  in  the  principal  herbaria 
of  the  world.  His  principal  companions  were  his  thermometer 
and  barometer,  and  his  careful  meteorological  observations 
were  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  in  the  report 


AUGUSTUS   FEXDLER.  467 

of  the  year  1857.  Returning  to  Missouri  in  1864,  he  bought 
some  wild  land  at  Allenton,  cultivated  and  lived  on  it  for 
seven  years  (except  one  winter  passed  in  the  herbarium  at 
Cambridge),  having  the  companionship  and  assistance  of  a 
half-brother  who  had  joined  him,  and  whom,  being  rather 
feeble-minded,  he  took  care  of  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  In 
1871,  having  sold  his  place  in  Missouri,  he  returned  again  to 
Prussia,  intending  to  remain  in  his  native  country.  Hut  lie 
soon  longed  for  the  New  World,  to  which  lie  returned  in 
1873;  he  settled  in  Wilmington,  Delaware,  where,  having  tin- 
botanical  companionship  of  Mr.  Canby,  he  again  interested 
himself  in  his  favorite  pursuits,  —  but  now  much  more  in 
speculative  physics.  For  years  the  thoughts  of  his  solitary 
hours  had  turned  upon  the  cause  of  gravitation  and  its  prob- 
able connection  with  other  forces,  and  while  at  Wilmington 
he  wrote  (and  unhappily  printed  at  his  own  expense)  a  thin 
octavo  volume,  entitled  "  The  Mechanism  of  the  Universe." 
Repeated  attacks  of  acute  rheumatism  constrained  him  to 
seek  again  a  tropical  climate,  this  time  the  island  of  Trini- 
dad. He  and  his  brother  landed  at  the  Port  of  Spain  in 
June,  1877,  where  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days,  living 
mainly  on  the  products  of  the  small  plot  of  land  which  he 
purchased,  renewing  his  old  interest  and  activity  in  making 
botanical  observations  and  collections,  especially  among  the 
Ferns,  of  which  he  sent  to  Professor  Eaton  collections  worthy 
of  his  better  days.  But,  having  exhausted  in  this  respect  the 
field  within  his  immediate  reach,  and  lost  the  vigor  needed  for 
laborious  excursions,  little  had  been  heard  of  him  for  the  pasl 
few  years,  and  it  is  only  indirectly  that  the  fact  of  his  death 
has  been  made  known  to  us. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Fendler  was  a  quick  and  keen 
observer  and  an  admirable  collector.  He  had  much  literary 
taste,  and  had  formed  a  very  good  literary  Btyle  in  English, 
as  his  descriptive  letters  show.  He  was  excessively  diffident 
and  shy,  but  courteous  and  most  amiable,  gentle,  and  deli- 
cately refined.  Many  species  of  his  own  discovery  commem- 
orate his  name,  as  also  a  well-marked  genus,  a  Saxifragaceous 
shrub,  which  is  winning  its  way  into  ornamental  cultivation. 


CHARLES   WRIGHT.1 

Charles  Wright  died  on  the  11th  of  August,  at  Wethers- 
field,  Connecticut,  at  the  home  where  he  was  born  on  the  29th 
of  October,  1811,  and  where  the  early  as  well  as  the  later 
years  of  his  life  were  passed.  He  received  his  education  in 
the  grammar  school  of  his  native  village  and  at  Yale  College, 
which  he  entered  in  1831,  graduating  in  1835.  His  fondness 
for  botany  was  developed  while  he  was  in  college,  although, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  he  had  no  teacher.  The  opportunity 
of  gratifying  this  predilection  in  an  inviting  region  may  have 
determined  his  acceptance,  almost  immediately  after  gradua- 
tion, of  an  offer  to  teach  in  a  private  family  at  Natchez,  Mis- 
sissippi. Within  a  year  pecuniary  reverses  of  his  employer 
terminated  this  engagement.  At  this  time  there  was  a  flow 
of  immigration  into  Texas,  then  an  independent  republic ; 
and  Mr.  Wright  joining  in  it,  in  the  spring  of  1837  made  his 
way  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Sabine,  and  over  the  border, 
chiefly  on  foot,  botanizing  as  he  went.  Making  his  head- 
quarters for  two  or  three  years  at  a  place  then  called  Zarvala, 
on  the  Neches,  he  occupied  himself  with  land-surveying,  ex- 
plored the  surrounding  country,  "  learned  to  dress  deer-skins 
after  the  manner  of  the  Indians,  and  to  make  moccasins  and 
leggins,"  "became  a  pretty  fair  deer-hunter,"  and  inured  him- 
self to  the  various  hardships  of  a  frontier  life  at  that  period. 
When  the  business  of  surveying  fell  off  he  took  again  to 
teaching ;  and  in  the  year  1844  he  opened  a  botanical  corre- 
spondence with  the  present  writer,  sending  an  interesting  col- 
lection of  the  plants  of  eastern  Texas  to  Cambridge.  In  1845 
he  went  to  Rutersville  in  Fayette  County,  and  for  a  year  or 
two  he  was  a  teacher  in  a  so-called  college  at  that  place,  or  in 
private  families  there  and  at  Austin,  devoting  all  his  leisure 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxxi.  12.     (1886.) 


CHARLES   WRIGHT.  469 

to  his  favorite  avocation.  In  the  summer  of  1847-8  he  had 
an  opportunity  of  carrying  his  botanical  explorations  farther 
south  and  west.  His  friend,  Dr.  Veitch,  whom  he  had  know  D 
in  eastern  Texas,  raised  a  company  of  volunteers  for  the 
Mexican  war,  then  going  on  (Texas  having  been  annexed 
to  the  United  States),  and  gave  Mr.  Wright  a  position  with 
moderate  pay  and  light  duties.  This  took  him  to  Eagle  Pass 
on  the  Mexican  frontier,  where  lie  botanized  on  both  sides  of 
the  river.  He  returned  to  the  north  in  the  autumn  of  that 
year,  with  his  botanical  collections,  and  passed  the  ensuing 
winter  in  Connecticut  and  at  Cambridge. 

In  the  spring  of  1849,  Mr.  Wright  returned  to  Texas,  and, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  summer,  with  some  difficulty  obtained 
leave  to  accompany  the  small  body  of  United  States  fcroopa 
which  was  sent  across  the  unexplored  country  from  San  An- 
tonio to  El  Paso  on  the  Rio  Grande.  Notwithstanding  some 
commendatory  letters  from  Washington,  no  other  assistance 
was  afforded  than  the  conveyance  of  his  trunk  and  collecting 
paper.  He  made  the  whole  journey  on  foot,  boarded  with 
one  of  the  messes  of  the  transportation  train,  and  endured 
many  privations  and  hardships.  The  return  to  the  sea-board, 
in  autumn,  was  by  rather  a  more  northerly  rout.'  and  under 
somewhat  less  untoward  conditions.  The  interesting  collec- 
tion thus  made  first  opened  to  our  knowledge  the  botany  of 
the  western  part  of  Texas.  It  was  published,  as  to  the  Poly- 
petalce  and  Compositce,  in  the  third  volume  of  the  "  Smith- 
sonian Contributions  to  Knowledge,"  as  "Plant*  Wrigbt- 
ianje,"  Part  I,  in  1852. 

A  year  and  more  was  then  passed  in  the  central  portion  of 
Texas,  awaiting  the  opportunity  for  other  distant  explorations, 
supporting  himself  in  part  by  teaching  a  small  school.  At 
length,  in  the  spring  of  1851,  he  joined  the  party  under  (  <>1- 
onel  Graham,  one  of  the  commissioners  for  surveying  and 
determining  the  United  States  and  Mexican  boundary  from 
the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Pacific,  accepting  a  position  partly  as 
botanist,  partly  as  one  of  the  surveyors,  which  assured  a  com- 
fortable maintenance  and  the  wished  for  opportunity  for 
botanical  exploration  in  an  untouched  field.     Attached  only 


470  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

to  Colonel  Graham's  party,  he  returned  with  him  without 
reaching  farther  westward  than  about  the  middle  of  what  is 
now  the  territory  of  Arizona,  and  in  the  summer  of  1852  he 
returned  with  his  extensive  collections  to  San  Antonio,  and 
thence  to  St.  Louis,  to  deliver  his  Cactacece  to  Dr.  Engelmann, 
and  with  the  remainder  to  Cambridge.  These  collections 
were  the  basis  of  the  second  part  of  "  Plantse  Wrightianae," 
published  in  1853,  and,  in  connection  with  those  of  Dr.  Parry r 
Professor  Thurber,  and  Dr.  J.  M.  Bigelow,  etc.,  of  the  Botany 
of  the  Mexican  Boundary  Survey,  published  in  1859.  As 
Mr.  Wright  collected  more  largely  than  his  associate  botanists, 
and  divided  his  collections  into  sets,  his  specimens  are  incor- 
porated into  a  considerable  number  of  herbaria,  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  are  the  types  of  many  new  species  and  genera. 
No  name  is  more  largely  commemorated  in  the  botany  of 
Texas,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona  than  that  of  Charles  Wright. 
It  is  an  Acanthaceous  genus  of  this  district,  of  his  own  dis- 
covery, that  bears  the  name  of  Carlowrightia.  Surely  no 
botanist  ever  better  earned  such  scientific  remembrance  by 
entire  devotion,  acute  observation,  severe  exertion,  and  perse- 
verance under  hardship  and  privation. 

Mr.  Wright's  next  expedition  was  made  under  more  pleas- 
ant conditions.  It  was  a  long  one  around  the  world,  as  bot- 
anist to  the  North  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  fitted  out 
under  Captain  Ringgold,  who  was  during  the  cruise  succeeded 
by  Commander  John  Rodgers.  After  passing  the  winter  of 
1852-3  at  his  home  in  Connecticut  and  at  Cambridge,  he 
joined  this  expedition  in  the  spring,  and  sailed  in  the  United 
States  ship  "  Vincennes  "  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  on  the  11th 
of  June.  The  collections  made  when  touching  at  Madeira  and 
Cape  Verde  were  of  course  unimportant ;  but  at  Simon's  Bay, 
just  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  a  stay  of  six  weeks  re- 
sulted in  a  very  considerable  collection  of  about  800  species 
within  a  small  area,  the  Cape  being  wonderfully  crowded 
with  all  kinds  of  plants.  The  voyage  was  thence  to  Sydney 
and  through  the  Coral  Sea  to  Hongkong,  which  was  reached 
about  the  middle  of  March,  1854.  The  collection  of  over  500 
species  of  Phsenogainous  plants,  which  was  made  during  that 


CHARLES  WRIGHT.  471 

spring  and  summer  upon  this  little  island,  and  supplemented 
in  the  spring  of  1855,  was  in  part  the  basis  of  Bentham's 
"  Flora  Hongkongensis."  In  the  autumn  of  1854,  interesting 
collections  were  made  on  the  Bonin  and  Loo  Choo  Islands, 
and  later  upon  the  islands  between  the  latter  and  Japan. 
Still  more  extensive  and  important  were  the  ((.licet ions  made 
in  Japan,  especially  those  of  the  northern  island,  although  the 
stay  was  brief.  Also  those  made  in  Behring's  Straits,  mainly 
on  Kiene  or  Arakamtchetchene  Island,  on  the  verge  of  the 
Polar  Sea,  where  the  scientific  members  of  the  expedition 
passed  the  month  of  August  and  a  part  of  September,  L855, 
Reaching  San  Francisco  in  October,  the  season  being  unpro- 
pitious  for  botany,  Mr.  Wright  was  detached  from  the  expe- 
dition, and  came  home  by  way  of  San  Juan  del  Sur  and 
Nicaragua,  botanizing  for  a  few  weeks  upon  an  island  in  the 
Lake,  and  thence  by  way  of  Greytown  to  New  York. 

In  the  following  autumn  (of  1856)  Mr.  Wright  began  his 
prolific  exploration  of  the  botany  of  Cuba.  Landing  at  San- 
tiago de  Cuba,  on  the  southeastern  part  of  the  island,  he 
passed  the  winter  of  1856-7  and  the  greater  part  of  the  en- 
suing summer  in  that  nearly  virgin  district,  most  hospitably 
entertained  by  his  countryman,  Mr.  George  Bradford,  and 
amonaf  the  caffetals  of  the  mountains  by  M.  Lescaille,  return- 
ing  home  with  his  rich  collections  early  in  the  autumn.  A 
year  later  he  revisited  Cuba,  was  again  received  by  his  devoted 
friends,  extended  his  botanical  explorations  to  the  northern 
coast,  and  also  farther  westward,  exchanging  the  dense  virgin 
forest  for  open  Pine-woods,  like  those  of  the  Atlantic  south- 
ern States,  stopping  at  various  hatos  or  cattle-fanns  on  his 
route,  but  reaching  better  accommodations  at  Bayamo,  when 
his  kind  host,  Dr.  Don  Manuel  Yero,  assisted  him  in  making 
some  profitable  mountain  excursions.  In  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1861  he  was  again  domiciled  with  the  Lescailles  at 
Monte  Verde  and  at  the  other  coffee  plantations  of  this  kind 
family;  and  from  thence  he  was  able  to  extend  his  herboriza- 
tions  to  the  eastern  coast  from  Baracoa  t<>  Cape  Maysi,  The 
next  winter  he  made  his  way  westward  to  near  the  centre  <»t 
the  island,  making  headquarters  at  the  sugar-plantation  of  the 


472  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

hospitable  Don  Simon  cle  Cardenas,  thence  visiting  the  Sienaga 
de  Zapata,  a  great  marshy  tract  toward  the  south  coast.  In 
the  early  summer  he  transferred  his  indefatigable  operations 
to  the  Vuelt-abajo,  as  it  is  called,  or  that  part  of  Cuba 
westward  of  Habana,  making  his  home  at  Balestena,  a  cattle- 
farm  at  the  southern  base  of  the  mountains  opposite  Bahia 
Honda,  where  he  was  long  most  hospitably  entertained  by  Don 
Jose  Blain  and  Don  F.  A.  Sauvalle.  From  thence  he  pushed 
his  explorations  nearly  to  the  southwestern  extremity  of  the 
island  at  Cape  San  Antonio.  In  the  summer  of  1864  he  came 
home  with  his  large  collections,  remaining  there  and  at  Cam- 
bridge for  about  a  year. 

In  the  autumn  of  1865  he  went  again  and  for  the  last  time 
to  Cuba,  again  traversed  the  Vuelt-abajo  in  various  directions, 
proceeded  by  steamer  to  Trinidad,  and  botanized  in  the  moun- 
tains behind  that  town  ;  thence  by  way  of  Santiago  he  revisited 
the  scenes  of  his  earlier  explorations  and  the  surviving  friends 
who  had  efficiently  promoted  them.  The  oldest  and  best  of 
them,  the  elder  Lescaille,  was  now  dead.  In  the  month  of 
July,  1867,  our  persevering  explorer  came  home. 

Mr.  Wright's  Cuban  botanical  collections,  from  time  to 
time  distributed  into  sets,  with  numbers,  were  acquired  by  sev- 
eral of  the  principal  herbaria,  the  fullest  sets  of  the  Phaeno- 
gamous  and  vascular  Cryptogamous  plants,  by  the  herbarium 
of  Cambridge,  and  by  the  late  Professor  Grisebach  of  Gottin- 
gen.  Professor  Grisebach  was  in  these  years  engaged  with 
his  "  Flora  of  the  British  West  Indies  " ;  so  that  he  gladly 
undertook  the  determination  of  the  plants  of  Cuba.  They 
were  accordingly  mainly  published  in  Grisebach's  two  papers, 
"  Plantae  Wrightianae  e  Cuba  Orientali,"  in  the  "  Memoirs 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  1860  and 
1862,  and  in  his  "  Catalogus  Plantarum  Cubensium  exhibens 
collectionem  Wrightianam  aliasque  minores  ex  Insula  Cuba 
missas,"  an  8vo  volume,  published  in  Leipsic  in  1866.  The 
latter  work  enumerates  the  Ferns  and  their  allies,  but  those 
for  the  earlier  part  were  published  in  1860  by  Professor 
Eaton,  in  his  "  Filices  Wrightianae  et  Fendlerianae,"  a  paper 
in  the  eighth  volume  of  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  American  Acad- 


CHARLES  WRIGHT.  473 

eniy."  The  later  collections  were  incompletely  published  in 
the  "  Flora  Cubana,"  a  volume  issued  by  F.  A.  Sauvalle  at 
Habana,  in  1873  and  later,  a  revision  of  Grisebach's  Cata- 
logue (without  the  references,  but  with  Spanish  vernacular 
names  attached)  which  was  made  by  Mr.  Wright,  who  added 
the  descriptions  of  a  good  many  new  species.  The  only  other 
direct  publication  by  Mr.  Wright  is  his  "  Notes  on  Jussiaea," 
in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  Linnaean  Society's  Journal.  As  to 
the  lower  Cryptogams,  Mr.  Wright's  very  rich  collections 
were  distributed  in  sets  and  published  by  specialists :  the 
Fungi,  by  Berkeley  and  the  late  Dr.  Curtis ;  the  Musci,  by 
the  late  Mr.  Sullivant;  the  Lichenes,  by  Professor  Tucker- 
man  in  large  part,  and  certain  tribes  quite  recently  by  Miiller 
of  Geneva.  So  Mr.  Wright's  name  is  deeply  impressed  upon 
the  botany  of  the  Queen  of  the  Antilles. 

There  was  a  prospect  that  he  might  do  some  good  work 
for  the  botany  of  San  Domingo  ;  for  in  1871  a  government 
vessel  was  sent  to  make  some  exploration  of  that  island,  and 
Mr.  Wright  went  with  it.  It  was  in  winter,  the  dry  season, 
and  the  excursion  across  the  country  was  hurried  and  unsat- 
isfactory; so  that  the  small  collection  made  in  this,  his  last 
distant  botanizing,  was  not  of  much  account. 

Mr.  Wright's  botanizing  days  were  now  essentially  over. 
He  made,  indeed,  a  visit  to  the  upper  part  of  Georgia  in  the 
spring  of  1875.  But  this  was  mainly  for  recuperation  from 
the  effects  of  a  transient  illness,  and  for  seeing  again  a  relative 
and  companion  of  his  youth,  from  whom  he  had  long  been 
separated.  A  large  part  of  several  years  was  passed  at  Cam- 
bridge, taking  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  Gray  Herbarium  : 
and  one  winter  was  passed  at  the  Bussey  Institution,  in  aiding 
his  associate  of  the  South  Pacific  cruise,  Professor  Storer. 
Of  late  there  fell  to  him  the  principal  charge  of  the  family  at 
Wethersfield,  consisting  of  a  brother  who  had  become  an 
invalid,  and  of  two  sisters  in  feeble  health,  all  unmarried  and 
aging  serenely  together.  By  degrees  his  own  strength  was 
sapped  by  some  organic  disease  of  the  heart,  which  had  given 
him  serious  warning;  and  on  the  11th  of  August  he  sud- 
denly succumbed,  while  making  his  usual  round  at  evening  to 


474  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

look  after  the  domestic  animals  of  the  homestead.  Not  re- 
turning when  expected,  he  was  sought  for ;  the  body  was  found 
as  if  in  quiet  repose,  but  the  spirit  had  departed. 

Mr.  Wright  was  a  person  of  low  stature  and  well-knit 
frame,  hardy  rather  than  strong,  scrupulously  temperate,  a 
man  of  simple  ways,  always  modest  and  unpretending,  but 
direct  and  downright  in  expression,  most  amiable,  trusty,  and 
religious.  He  accomplished  a  great  amount  of  useful  and 
excellent  work  for  botany  in  the  pure  and  simple  love  of  it ; 
and  his  memory  is  held  in  honorable  and  grateful  remem- 
brance by  his  surviving  associates. 


GEORGE  W.  CLINTON.1 

George  W.  Clinton  died,  at  Albany,  on  the  7th  of  Sep- 
tember last,  in  the  seventy-eighth  year  of  his  age.  lie  was 
the  son  of  DeWitt  Clinton,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
governors,  and  the  grand-nephew  of  George  Clinton,  the  first 
governor  of  the  State  of  New  York.  lie  was  born  on  the  L3th 
of  April,  1807,  whether  in  the  city  of  New  York  or  in  the 
home  on  Long  Island  is  uncertain.  He  became  a  student  in 
Albany  Academy  in  the  year  1816,  when  his  father  entered 
upon  his  first  tenure  of  office  as  governor,  entered  Hamilton 
College  in  1821,  was  graduated  in  1825,  was  led  by  his  early 
scientific  tastes  to  the  study  of  medicine,  which  he  pursued  for 
a  year  or  two ;  at  least  he  attended  two  courses  of  lectures  at 
the  then  flourishing  country  medical  school  at  Fairfield.  New 
York.  There  his  acquaintance  with  Professor  James  Hadley 
further  developed  his  fondness  for  chemistry  and  botany,  as  it 
did  that  of  the  writer  of  this  notice  a  fewr  years  afterwards.  He 
also  came  under  the  instruction  or  companionship  of  Dr.  Lewis 
C.  Beck,  a  younger  brother  of  his  medical  preceptor  Dr.  T. 
Komeyn  Beck,  attended  a  course  of  private  lectures  on  bot- 
any given  by  Dr.  William  Tully,  entered  into  correspondence 
with  Rafinesque,  Torrey,  etc.,  and  so  bid  fair  to  give  himself 
to  scientific  studies,  as  we  may  suppose  with  the  approval  <'f 
his  father,  who,  it  is  well  known,  had  a  decided  scientific  bent. 
But  Governor  Clinton's  death  in  February,  1828,  wrought  a 
change  in  his  prospects  and  in  the  course  of  his  life.  Acting 
upon  the  advice  of  his  father's  friend,  Ambrose  Spencer,  the 
distinguished  chief  justice  of  the  State,  lie  took  up  the  study 
of  law,  attended  the  law  lectures  of  Judge  Gould  at  Litchfield, 
Connecticut,  and  continued  his  studies  in  Canandaigua,  New 
York,  in  the  office  of  John  C.  Spencer,  whose  daughter  lie 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  l\  sit.,  xxxi.  17.     ( lSXii. ) 


476  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

married.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1831,  he  established  him- 
self at  Buffalo  in  1836,  and  practised  his  profession  most 
acceptably  until  the  year  1854,  when  he  became  judge  of  the 
superior  court  of  that  city.  This  honorable  position  he  con- 
tinued to  hold  with  entire  approbation  until  January,  1878, 
when  he  retired  under  the  provision  of  the  constitution  upon 
attaining  the  age  of  seventy  years.  Then  he  resumed  the 
practice  of  the  law  for  two  or  three  years  ;  but  at  length  he 
took  up  his  residence  in  Albany,  partly  for  the  more  conven- 
ient rendering  of  his  service  as  a  regent  of  the  university 
of  the  State,  and  its  vice-chancellor,  but  mainly  for  investi- 
gating and  editing  the  papers  and  writings  of  his  great-uncle 
George  Clinton.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  7th  of  September  he 
took  an  accustomed  walk  in  the  Rural  Cemetery  of  Albany, 
and  there  he  died,  probably  quite  instantaneously ;  for  when 
his  body  was  found,  two  or  three  hours  later,  some  withered 
sprays  of  White  Melilot,  which  he  had  gathered,  were  still 
clasped  in  his  hand. 

Judge  Clinton's  professional  life  need  not  here  be  con- 
sidered. I  did  not  know  him,  but  knew  of  him,  as  a  botanist 
in  his  younger  days.  About  the  year  1860,  after  buying  a 
botanical  book  for  his  daughter,  the  turning  over  its  pages 
revived  an  almost  forgotten  delight ;  and  when  his  attention 
was  again  given  to  the  flowers  he  had  so  long  neglected,  we 
soon  came  into  correspondence.  "  I  might  have  become  a 
respectable  naturalist,"'  he  writes,  "  but  was  torn  from  it  in 
my  youth.  ...  To  become  a  botanist  is  now  hopeless ;  I  am, 
and  must  remain  a  mere  collector.  But  then  I  collect  for 
my  friends  and  for  the  Buffalo  Society  of  the  Natural  Sci- 
ences. If  I  can  please  my  friends  and  help  the  Society  it 
pleases  me.  I  want  it  to  succeed.  Money  I  cannot  give  it, 
and  I  give  it  all  I  can,  the  benefit  of  my  example  and  pleasant 
labors."  An  instructive  and  pleasant,  and  on  his  part  a 
sprightly  correspondence  it  has  been,  and  most  ardent  and 
successful  were  his  efforts  in  the  development  of  the  Society 
of  the  Natural  Sciences  over  which  he  presided,  and  espe- 
cially of  its  herbarium  which  he  founded.  In  the  spring  of 
1864  he  wrote  :  "  To-morrow  I  believe  I  shall  be  able  to  mail 


GEORGE    W.    CLINTON.  477 

you  my  '  Preliminary  List  of  the  Plants  of  Buffalo/  And  I 
demand  that  immediately  upon  its  reception,  you  write  me, 
saying  'pretty  well  for  you.'  I  do  feel  gratified  thai  I  have 
at  last  made   the  mitiest  mite  of  a  contribution  to  science 

I  know  how  extremely  minute  it  is.  I  would  nol  be  bo  exact- 
ing but  for  the  fact  that  my  letter-book  is  just  full,  and  I  want 
to  commence  a  new  one  with  a  letter  from  you.  I  mean  with  a 
note  from  you,  a  letter  is  too  ambitious." 

As  this  modest  Preliminary  List  exemplifies  tin-  beginning, 
so  the  full  and  critically  prepared  "Catalogue  of  the  Native 
and  Naturalized  Plants  of  the  City  of  Buffalo  and  its  Vicin- 
ity," (pp.  215),  published  in  1882-3,  marks  the  conclusion  and 
shows  the  fruits  of  Judge  Clinton's  work  upon  the  flora  of 
the  district  around  Buffalo.  This  catalogue  was  inde<  d  pre- 
pared and  published  by  his  near  friend  and  associate  Mr.  Day, 
with  a  thoroughness  and  judgment  which  have  been  much 
commended.  But  the  collection  and  elaboration  of  the  mate- 
rials, the  critical  determination  of  the  species,  and  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  "Clinton  Herbarium,"  as  it  is  now  appropriately 
called,  were  essentially  his  own  work  in  the  horce  svbsi 
of  a  busy  professional  life.  If  during  middle  life  and  while 
making  his  way  in  his  chosen  vocation  he  abandoned  his  early 
scientific  avocation,  he  took  it  up  again  when  he  had  achieved 
a  position  which  allowed  some  well-earned  leisure,  and  he  pur- 
sued it  with  an  added  zeal,  energy,  and  acumen,  which  should 
give  his  name  a  place  among  the  botanical  worthies,  —to  be 
remembered  after  those  who  knew  and  appreciated  and  loved 
him  have  passed  away.  A  little  Scirpus  specifically  bears  his 
name;  but  I  never  see  the  modest  Liliaceous  plant  of  our 
northern  woods,  called  Clintonia  in  honor  of  the  father,  with- 
out associating  it  with  the  son. 

Judge  Clinton's  contributions  to  the  literature  of  the  1.  gal 
profession  consisted  mainly  of  his  "Digest  of  the  Decisions 
of  the  Law  and  Equity  Courts  of  the  State  <.f  New  York," 
in  three  stout  volumes.  But  he  was  a  not  unfrequenl  and  a 
fascinating  writer  in  the  newspapers  of  the  city,  an  occasional 
lecturer  upon  historical  as  well  as  scientific  topics,  and  an 
organizer  or  promoter  of  every  good  civic  work.    He  was  a  per- 


478  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 

son  of  marked  and  distinct  individuality.  It  had  been  said  of 
him  that  "  he  was  not  like  anybody  else,  did  not  look  like  any- 
body else,  and  did  not  talk  like  anybody  else."  But  his  ways 
and  conversation  were  peculiarly  winning  and  delightful.  Of 
a  rather  large  family  of  children,  four  survive,  two  of  them 
sons,  and  a  goodly  number  of  grandchildren. 


EDMOND   BOISSIER.1 

Edmond  Boissier  died  on  the  25th  of  September,  at  bis 
country  residence  in  Canton  Vaud,  Switzerland,  at  the  a_ 
seventy-five  years  and  three  months.  Having  known  him  per- 
sonally almost  from  the  beginning  of  his  botanical  career, 
which  has  been  so  honorable  and  distinguished,  it  Is  a  melan- 
choly satisfaction  as  well  as  a  duty,  to  pay  this  passing  tribute 
to  his  memory. 

Boissier  came  from  one  of  those  worthy  families  which  were 
lost  to  France  and  gained  to  Geneva  by  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  —  a  family  that  has  proved  its  talents  and 
high  character  in  more  than  one  of  its  members.  Madame 
the  Countess  de  Gasparin  is  a  sister  next  to  him  in  age.  and 
the  two  had  their  education  very  much  in  common.  He  was 
born  at  Geneva,  May  25,  1810,  brought  up  and  educated 
there,  except  that  the  summers  were  passed  at  his  father's 
place  at  Valeyres,  which  he  in  time  inherited,  and  where  ln^ 
life  was  closed.  From  his  youth  he  was  fond  of  natural  his- 
tory and  of  travel.  It  was  not  in  his  disposition,  nor  <>t  the 
Genevese  spirit  of  that  day,  to  lead  an  aimless  life  :  >.•.  when 
he  came  to  choose  what  may  be  called  his  profession,  it  was 
natural  that,  at  Geneva,  in  the  days  of  the  elder  I  >e  (an- 
dolle,  he  took  to  botany.  He  showed  his  great  good  sense  by 
his  early  judicious  choice  of  a  field  and  by  his  unbroken  devo- 
tion to  it.  To  the  Mediterranean  region,  to  southern  Spain, 
and  the  Orient  most  of  his  work  relates.  Attn  a  year  or  two 
of  careful  preparation  he  went  to  Spain,  in  1837,  explored 
especially  Granada  and  the  eastern  Pyrenees,  and  between 
1839  and  1845  brought  out  his  "Voyage  Botanique  dans  1.' 
midi  de  TEspagne,"  in  two  large  quarto  volumes,  the  first  of 
narrative  and  plates,  one  hundred  and  eighty  in  number,  the 
1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Art-,  xxxi.  20.      (  L886.) 


480  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

second  of  descriptive  matter  relating  to  the  Granadan  flora. 
Among  the  species  he  brought  to  light  was  the  Abies  Pin- 
sapo,  the  beautiful  Fir-tree  now  so  well  known  in  cultiva- 
tion. His  narrative,  besides  its  botanical  interest,  is  charm- 
ing reading. 

In  1842,  after  his  marriage  to  his  cousin,  of  the  De  la  Rive 
family,  he  traveled  with  his  wife  in  Greece,  Anatolia,  Syria, 
and  Egypt.     It  was  to  his  dear  companion  that  he  dedicated 
two    of   their   joint   discoveries,    Omphalodes    Lucilice   and 
Chionodoxa    Lucilice.     In    1849   he    experienced   the  great 
sorrow  of  his  life  in  her  death  from   typhoid  fever,  during  a 
second  journey  in  the  south  of  Spain.     Between   1842   and 
1854  he  published  the  first  series  of  his  "  Diagnoses  Planta- 
rum  Orientalium  No  varum,"  filling  two  volumes,  and  in  1855 
the  second  series  of  almost  equal  extent ;  in   1848  he  com- 
pleted his  monograph   of  the  Plumbaginacece ;   in   1862   he 
promptly  finished  his  conscientious  elaboration  of  the  great 
genus  Euphorbia  for  De  Candolle's  "  Prodromus,"  and  in  1866 
brought  out  the  "  Icones  Euphorbiarum,"  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  folio  plates  from  outline  drawings  by  Heyland.     In 
1881   he  made  a  trip  to  Norway  with  his  associate  Reuter. 
Not  to  mention  other  journeys,  he  was  again  in  Spain  and 
adjacent  countries  in   1877,  and  lastly   in   1881,  his  eighth 
visit,  —  then  in  wretched  health.     Passing  by  scattered  papers 
of  his,  we  come  to  his  great  work,  the  "  Flora  Orientalis,"  in 
five  octavo  volumes.     It  comprehends  Greece  and  Turkey  up 
to  Dalmatia  and  the  Balkans ;  the  Crimea  ;  Egypt  up  to  the 
first  cataracts ;  northern   Arabia  down  to  the   tropical  line  ; 
Asia  Minor,  Armenia,   Syria,  and   Mesopotamia ;  Turkestan 
up  to  45°  of  latitude,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  Beloochistan 
—  that  is,  up  to  the  borders  of  India.     The  first  volume  was 
published  in  1867  ;  the  fifth,  in  1884,  brings  the  work  down 
to  its  conclusion  with  the  Pteridophytes  ;  and  the  manuscript 
for  a  supplementary  volume,  for  recent  discoveries  and  some 
reelaboration,  was  about  half  finished  when  he  laid  down  his 
pen  under  an   attack  seemingly  no  worse  than  the  many  he 
had  recovered  from,  but  which  now  terminated  his  earthly 
life. 


EDMOND  BOISSIER.  481 

It  was  a  noble  life,  shadowed  by  an  early  bereavement,  and 
in  later  years  worn  by  painful  disease,  —  the  manly  life  of 
one  who  lived  simply  and  wrought  industriously  where  many 
others  with  his  independent  fortune  would  have  lived  idly  and 
luxuriously;  and  he  was  no  less  a  loyal  and  public-spirited 
citizen.  Upon  an  occasion  when,  long-  ago,  we  met  him  at 
Geneva,  he  had  no  time  for  botanical  parlance,  for  he  was 
doing  duty  in  the  ranks  of  the  federal  army.  Later,  at  a  time 
of  commotion  at  Geneva,  he  helped  to  quell  a  revolutionary 
riot,  and  received  a  painful  bayonet  wound  in  the  Bervice. 
True  to  his  ancestry,  he  was  a  devoted  Protestant  Christian, 
a  trusted  member  of  the  synod  of  the  Free  Church  in  Canton 
Vaud,  where  he  lived  when  not  in  winter  residence  at  (  reneva, 
and  where  his  assiduous  attentions  to  the  poor  and  sick  will 
be  remembered.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  presence,  and  till  past 
middle  life  of  much  bodily  vigor.  As  a  botanist  he  gave  him- 
self to  systematic  work  only,  for  which  he  had  a  fine  tact,  and, 
like  the  school  in  which  he  was  bred,  perhaps  a  faculty  of 
excessive  discrimination.  No  man  living  knew  the  Europeo- 
Caucasian  plants  so  well,  or  could  describe  them  better  ;  and 
his  herbarium  must  be,  with  possibly  one  rival,  the  most  ex- 
tensive and  valuable  private  collection  in  Europe,  lie  loved 
living  flowers  as  well,  and  rejoiced  in  his  choice  conservatory 
collections  at  Rivage,  on  the  shores  of  the  Leman,  and  in  his 
well -stocked  rock-works  of  alpine  plants  which  adorn  his 
grounds  at  Valeyres. 

A  charming  biographical  notice  by  one  who  knew  him  well 
through  his  whole  life,  M.  De  Candolle,  is  contained  in  the 
"Archives  des  Science"  of  the  "  Bibliotheque  Universelle 
de  Geneva  "  for  October  last. 


JOHANNES  AUGUST  CHRISTIAN   RCEPER.1 

Johannes  August  Christian  Rceper  died  on  the  17th 
of  March,  1884,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four.  He  had  been  for 
some  time  the  oldest  botanist  we  know  of,  at  least  the  oldest 
botanical  author  ;  for  his  first  work,  a  monograph  of  the  Ger- 
man species  of  Euphorbia,  was  published  in  1824.  He  was 
director  of  the  Botanic  Garden  at  Basle  in  1828,  when  he 
published  his  classical  paper  "  De  Organis  Plantarum,"  and 
he  may  have  been  so  in  1826,  when  he  contributed  to  Seringe's 
44  Melanges  Botaniques  "  his  paper  on  the  nature  of  flowers  and 
inflorescences,  which  first  put  the  latter  upon  a  scientific  basis 
and  essentially  established  the  present  nomenclature.  He  was 
botanical  professor  there  in  1830,  when  he  published  his  tract 
44  De  Floribus  et  Afnnitatibus  Balsaminearum."  In  these  es- 
says he  gave  the  promise  of  being  one  of  the  foremost  morpho- 
logical botanists  of  the  age.  Some  time  before  the  year  1840 
he  was  translated  to  Rostock,  where  he  held  the  botanical  pro- 
fessorship for  more  than  forty  years,  but  without  fulfilling  the 
promise  of  his  youth  by  additional  contributions  to  the  science 
of  any  considerable  importance.  There  are,  however,  some 
articles  from  him  in  the  44  Botanische  Zeitung,"  and  other  Ger- 
man periodicals,  the  latest  in  the  year  1859.  In  1851  he  was 
chosen  a  Foreign  Member  of  the  Linnsean  Society  of  London. 
We  find  no  record  of  the  time  or  place  of  his  nativity,  but  we 
infer  from  a  statement  in  the  preface  of  his  work  on  Euphorbia, 
which  was  published  at  Gottingen,  that  he  was  a  German  and 
not  a  Swiss.  He  is  said  to  have  been  most  amiable,  and  of 
deep  religious  convictions. 

1  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  3  ser.,  xxxi.  22.     (1886.) 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ. 

There  is  no  need  to  give  an  abstract  of  the  contents  of  these 
fascinating  volumes,1  for  everybody  is  reading  them.  M<>^t  are 
probably  wishing  for  more  personal  details,  especially  of  the 
American  life ;  but  the  editorial  work  is  so  deftly  and  delicately 
done,  and  "the  story  of  an  intellectual  life  marked  by  rare 
coherence  and  unity "  is  so  well  arranged  to  tell  itself  and 
make  its  impression,  that  we  may  thankfully  accept  what  lias 
been  given  us,  though  the  desired  "fullness  of  personal  narra- 
tive "  be  wanting. 

Twelve  years  have  passed  since  Agassiz  was  taken  from  as. 
Yet  to  some  of  us  it  seems  not  very  long  ago  that  the  already 
celebrated  Swiss  naturalist  came  over  in  the  bloom  of  his 
manly  beauty  to  charm  us  with  his  winning  ways,  and  inspire 
us  with  his  overflowing  enthusiasm,  as  he  entered  upon  the 
American  half  of  that  career  which  has  been  so  beneficial  to 
the  interests  of  natural  science.  There  are  not  many  left  of 
those  who  attended  those  first  Lowell  Lectures  in  the  autumn 
of  1846,  —  perhaps  all  the  more  taking  for  the  broken  Eng- 
lish in  which  they  were  delivered, — and  who  shared  in  the 
delight  with  which,  in  a  supplementary  lecture,  he  more  flu- 
ently addressed  his  audience  in  his  mother-tongue. 

In  these  earliest  lectures  he  sounded  the  note  of  which  his 
last  public  utterance  was  the  dying  cadence.  For.  as  this 
biography  rightly  intimates,  his  scientific  life  was  singularly 
entire  and  homogeneous, — if  not  uninfluenced  yet  quite  un- 
changed by  the  transitions  which  have  marked  the  period.  In 
a  small  circle  of  naturalists, almost  the  first  that  was  assembled 
to  greet  him  on  his  coming  to  this  country,  and  of  which  tin- 
writer  is  the  sole  survivor,  when  Agassiz  was  inquired  of  as  to 

1  "Louis  Agassiz,  his  Life  and  Correspoiidfiicr."  (The  Andorra  Re- 
view,  January,  1886,  p.  39.) 


484  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

his  conception  of  "  species,"  he  sententiously  replied  :  "  A 
species  is  a  thought  of  the  Creator."  To  this  thoroughly  theis- 
tic  conception  he  joined  the  scientific  deduction  which  he  had 
already  been  led  to  draw,  that  the  animal  species  of  each 
geological  age,  or  even  stratum,  were  different  from  those  pre- 
ceding and  following,  and  also  unconnected  by  natural  deriva- 
tion. And  his  very  last  published  works  reiterated  his  stead- 
fast conviction  that  "  there  is  no  evidence  of  a  direct  descent 
of  later  from  earlier  species  in  the  geological  succession  of  an- 
imals." Indeed,  so  far  as  we  know,  he  would  not  even  admit 
that  such  "  thoughts  of  the  Creator"  as  these  might  have  been 
actualized  in  the  natural  course  of  events.  If  he  had  ac- 
cepted such  a  view,  and  if  he  had  himself  apprehended  and 
developed  in  his  own  way  the  now  wellnigh  assured  signifi- 
cance of  some  of  his  early  and  pregnant  generalizations,  the 
history  of  the  doctrine  of  development  would  have  been  differ- 
ent from  what  it  is,  a  different  spirit  and  another  name  would 
have  been  prominent  in  it,  and  Agassiz  would  not  have  passed 
away  while  fighting  what  he  felt  to  be  —  at  least  for  the 
present  —  a  losing  battle.  It  is  possible  that  the  "  whirligig 
of  time "  may  still  "  bring  in  his  revenges,"  but  not  very 
probable. 

Much  to  his  credit,  it  may  be  said  that  a  good  share  of 
Agassiz's  invincible  aversion  to  evolution  may  be  traced  to 
the  spirit  in  which  it  was  taken  up  by  his  early  associate  Vogt, 
and,  indeed,  by  most  of  the  German  school  then  and  since, 
which  justly  offended  both  his  scientific  and  his  religious 
sense.  Agassiz  always  "  thought  nobly  of  the  soul,"  and 
could  in  no  way  approve  either  materialistic  or  agnostic  opin- 
ions. The  idealistic  turn  of  his  mind  was  doubtless  confirmed 
in  his  student  days  at  Munich,  whither  he  and  his  friend 
Braun  resorted  after  one  session  at  Heidelberg,  and  where 
both  devotedly  attended  the  lectures  of  Schelling,  —  then  in 
his  later  glory,  —  and  of  Oken,  whose  "  Natur-Philosophie  " 
was  then  in  the  ascendant.  Although  fascinated  and  inspired 
by  Oken's  a  priori  biology  (built  upon  morphological  ideas 
which  had  not  yet  been  established  but  had,  in  part,  been 
rightly  divined),  the  two  young  naturalists  were  not  carried 


LOUIS   AG  A  SSI  Z.  485 

away  by  it,  —  probably  because  they  were  such  keen  and  con- 
scientious observers,  and  were  kept  in  close  communion  with 
work-a-day  Nature.  As  Agassiz  intimates.  they  had  to  resist 
44  the  temptation  to  impose  one's  own  ideas  upon  Nature,  to 
explain  her  mysteries  by  brilliant  theories  rather  than  by 
patient  study  of  the  facts  as  we  find  thou."  and  that  "over- 
bearing confidence  in  the  abstract  conceptions  of  the  human 
mind  as  applied  to  the  study  of  nature;  "  although,  indeed,  he 
adds,  "the  young  naturalist  of  that  day  who  did  not  share,  in 
some  degree,  the  intellectual  stimulus  given  to  scientific  pur- 
suits by  physio-philosophy  would  have  missed  a  pari  of  his 
training."  That  training  was  not  lost  upon  Agassiz.  Although 
the  adage  in  his  last  published  article,  "  A  physical  fact  is  as 
sacred  as  a  moral  principle,"  was  well  lived  up  to,  yet  ideal 
prepossessions  often  had  much  to  do  with  his  marshaling  of 
the  facts. 

Another  professor  at  Munich,  from  whom  Agassiz  learned 
much,  and  had  nothing  to  unlearn,  was  the  anatomist  and 
physiologist  Dollinger.  He  published  little;  but  he  seems  to 
have  been  the  founder  of  modern  embryologieal  investigation, 
and  to  have  initiated  his  two  famous  pupils,  first  Von  Baer, 
and  then  Agassiz,  into  at  least  the  rudiments  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  correspondence  between  the  stages  of  the  development 
of  the  individual  animal  with  that  of  its  rank  in  tin-  seale  of 
being,  and  the  succession  in  geological  time  of  the  tonus  and 
types  to  which  the  species  belongs:  a  principle  very  fertile 
for  scientific  zoology  in  the  hands  of  both  these  naturalists, 
and  one  of  the  foundations  of  that  theory  of  evolution  which 
the  former,  we  believe,  partially  accepted,  and  the  other  wholly 
rejected. 

The  botanical  professor,  the  genial  Von  Martins,  should 
also  be  mentioned  here.  He  found  Agassiz  a  student,  barely 
of  age;  he  directly  made  him  an  author,  and  an  authority  in 
the  subject  of  his  predilection.  Dr.  Spix,  the  zoological  com- 
panion of  Martius  in  Brazilian  exploration,  died  in  1826  ;  the 
fishes  of  the  collection  were  left  untouched.  Martius  recog- 
nized the  genius  of  Agassiz,  and  offered  him.  and  indeed 
pressed  him  to  undertake  their  elaboration.      Agassiz  brought 


486  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

out  the  first  part  of  the  quarto  volume  on  the  Fishes  of  the 
Brazilian  Expedition  of  Spix  and  Martius  before  he  took 
his  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  and  completed  it  before 
he  proceeded  to  that  of  Doctor  in  Medicine  in  1830.  The 
work  opened  his  way  to  fame,  but  brought  no  money.  Still, 
as  Martius  defrayed  all  the  expenses,  the  net  result  com- 
pared quite  favorably  with  that  of  later  publications.  More- 
over, out  of  it  possibly  issued  his  own  voyage  to  Brazil  in 
later  years,  under  auspices  such  as  his  early  patron  never 
dreamed  of. 

This  early  work  also  made  him  known  to  Cuvier ;  so  that 
when  he  went  to  Paris,  a  year  afterwards,  to  continue  his 
medical  and  scientific  studies,  —  the  one,  as  he  deemed,  from 
necessity,  the  other  from  choice,  —  he  was  received  as  a  fellow- 
savant.  Yet  at  first  with  a  certain  reserve,  probably  no  more 
than  was  natural  in  view  of  the  relative  age  and  position  of 
the  two  men  ;  but  Agassiz,  writing  to  his  sister,  says  :  "  This 
extreme  but  formal  politeness  chills  you  instead  of  putting 
you  at  your  ease  ;  it  lacks  cordiality,  and  to  tell  the  truth,  I 
would  gladly  go  away  if  I  were  not  held  fast  by  the  wealth  of 
material  of  which  I  can  avail  myself."  But  only  a  month 
later  he  writes  —  this  time  to  his  uncle  —  that,  while  he  was 
anxious  lest  he  "  might  not  be  allowed  to  examine,  and  still 
less  to  describe,  the  fossil  fishes  and  their  skeletons  in  the 
Museum,  .  .  .  knowing  that  Cuvier  intended  to  write  a  work 
on  this  subject,"  and  might  naturally  wish  to  reserve  the  ma- 
terials for  his  own  use,  and  when  the  young  naturalist,  as  he 
showed  his  own  sketches  and  notes  to  the  veteran,  was  faintly 
venturing  to  hope  that,  on  seeing  his  work  so  far  advanced, 
he  might  perhaps  be  invited  to  share  in  a  joint  publication, 
Cuvier  relieved  his  anxiety  and  more  than  fulfilled  his  half- 
formed  desires. 

"  He  desired  his  secretary  to  bring  him  a  certain  portfolio  of 
drawings.  He  showed  me  the  contents :  they  were  drawings 
of  fossil  fishes,  and  notes  which  he  had  taken  in  the  British 
Museum  and  elsewhere.  After  looking  it  through  with  me, 
he  said  he  had  seen  with  satisfaction  the  manner  in  which  I 
had  treated  this  subject ;  that  I  had,  indeed,  anticipated  him, 


LOUIS  AG A  SSI Z.  487 

since  he  had  intended  at  some  future  time  to  do  the  same 
thing;  but  that,  as  I  had  given  it  so  much  attention,  and  had 
done  my  work  so  well,  he  had  decided  to  renounce  his  project, 

and  to  place  at  my  disposition  all  the  materials  he  had  col- 
lected and  all  the  preliminary  notes  he  had  taken.*' 

Within  three  months  Cuvier  fell  under  a  Btroke  of  paralysis, 
and  shortly  died.  The  day  before  the  attack  he  had  said  to 
Agassiz,  "  Be  careful,  and  remember  that  work  kills."  We 
doubt  if  it  often  kills  naturalists,  unless  when,  like  Cuvier, 
they  also  become  statesmen. 

But  to  live  and  work,  the  naturalist  must  be  fed.  It  was  a 
perplexing  problem  how  possibly  to  remain  a  while  longer  in 
Paris,  which  was  essential  to  the  carrying  on  of  his  work,  and 
to  find  the  means  of  supplying  his  very  simple  wants.  Ami 
here  the  most  charming  letters  in  these  volumes  arc,  first,  the 
one  from  his  mother,  full  of  tender  thoughtfulness,  and  mak- 
ing the  first  suggestion  about  Neuchatel  and  its  museum,  a-  a 
place  where  the  aspiring  naturalist  might  secure  something 
more  substantial  than  "brilliant  hopes  "  to  live  upon  ;  next. 
that  from  Agassiz  to  his  father,  who  begs  to  be  told  as  much 
as  he  can  be  supposed  to  understand  of  the  nature  of  this 
work  upon  fossil  fishes,  which  called  for  so  much  time,  labor, 
and  expense;  and,  almost  immediately,  Agassiz's  letter  to  his 
parents,  telling  them  that  Humboldt  had,  quite  spontaneously 
and  unexpectedly,  relieved  his  present  anxieties  by  a  credit  of 
a  thousand  francs,  to  be  increased,  if  necessary.  Humboldt 
had  shown  a  friendly  interest  in  him  from  the  first,  and  had 
undertaken  to  negotiate  with  Cotta,  the  publisher,  in  his  lie- 
half;  but,  becoming  uneasy  by  the  delay,  and  feeling  that  "  a 
man  so  laborious,  so  gifted,  and  so  deserving  of  affection  .  .  . 
should  not  be  left  in  a  position  where  lack  of  serenity  disturbs 
his  power  of  work,"  he  delicately  pressed  the  acceptance  oi 
this  aid  as  a  confidential  transaction  between  two  friends  oi 
unequal  age. 

Indeed,  the  relations  between  the  "  two  friends,"  »'iir  at 
that  time  sixty-three,  and  the  other  twenty-five,  were  very 
beautiful,  and  so  continued,  as  the  correspondence  Bhows, 
Humboldt's  letters  (we  wish  there  were  more  <>t'  them)  are 


488  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

particularly  delightful,  are  full  of  wit  and  wisdom,  of  almost 
paternal  solicitude,  and  of  excellent  counsel.  He  enjoins 
upon  Agassiz  to  finish  what  he  has  in  hand  before  taking  up 
new  tasks  (this  is  in  1837),  not  to  spread  his  intellect  over 
too  many  subjects  at  once,  nor  to  go  on  enlarging  the  works 
he  had  undertaken  ;  he  predicts  the  pecuniary  difficulties  in 
which  expansion  would  be  sure  to  land  him,  bewails  the  gla- 
cier investigations,  and  closes  with  "  a  touch  of  fun,  in  order 
that  my  letter  may  seem  a  little  less  like  preaching.  A  thou- 
sand affectionate  remembrances.  No  more  ice,  not  much  of 
echinoderms,  plenty  of  fish,  recall  of  ambassadors  in  partibus, 
and  great  severity  toward  booksellers,  an  infernal  race,  two 
or  three  of  which  have  been  killed  under  me." 

The  ambassadors  in  partibus  were  the  artists  Agassiz  em- 
ployed and  sent  to  England  or  elsewhere  to  draw  fossil  fishes 
for  him  in  various  museums,  at  a  cost  which  Humboldt  knew 
would  be  embarrassing.  The  ice,  which  he  would  have  no 
more  of,  refers  to  the  glacier  researches  upon  which  Agassiz 
was  entering  with  ardor,  laying  one  of  the  solid  foundations 
of  his  fame.  Curiously  enough,  both  Humboldt  and  Yon 
Buch,  with  all  their  interest  in  Agassiz,  were  quite  unable  to 
comprehend  the  importance  of  an  inquiry  which  was  directly 
in  their  line,  and,  indeed,  they  scorned  it ;  while  the  young 
naturalist,  without  training  in  physics  or  geology,  but  with 
the  insight  of  genius,  at  once  developed  the  whole  idea  of  the 
glacial  period,  with  its  wonderful  consequences,  upon  his  first 
inspection  of  the  phenomena  shown  him  by  Charpentier  in 
the  valley  of  the  Rhone. 

It  is  well  that  Humboldt's  advice  was  not  heeded  in  this 
regard.  Nevertheless,  he  was  a  wise  counselor.  He  saw  the 
danger  into  which  his  young  friend's  enthusiasm  and  bound- 
less appetite  for  work  was  likely  to  lead  him.  For  of  Agassiz 
it  may  be  said,  with  a  variation  of  the  well-known  adage,  that 
there  was  nothing  he  touched  that  he  did  not  aggrandize. 
Everything  he  laid  hold  of  grew  large  under  his  hand,  — 
grew  into  a  mountain  threatening  to  overwhelm  him,  and 
would  have  overwhelmed  any  one  whose  powers  were  not  pro- 
portionate to  his  aspirations.     Established  at  Neuchatel,  and 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ.  4^(J 

giving  himself  with  ardor  to  the  duties  of  his  professorship, 
it  was  surely  enough  if  he  could  do  the  author's  share  in  the 
production  of  bis  great  works  on  the  fossil  and  the  fresh- 
water fishes,  without  assuming  the  responsibilities  and  cares 
of  publication  as  well,  and  even  of  a  lithographic  establish- 
ment which  he  set  up  mainly  for  his  own  use.  Bui  he  carried 
on,  pari  passu,  or  nearly  so,  his  work  on  fossil  Mollusca,  — 
a  quarto  volume  with  nearly  a  hundred  plates,  — his  mono- 
graphs of  Echinoderms,  living  and  fossil,  his  investigations  of 
the  enibryological  development  of  fishes,  and  that  Laborious 
work,  the  "  Nomenclator  Zoologieus,"  with  the  "  Biblio- 
graphia,"  later  published  in  England  by  the  Ray  Society. 
Moreover,  of  scattered  papers,  those  of  the  Royal  Society's 
Catalogue  which  antedate  his  arrival  in  this  country  are  more 
than  threescore  and  ten.  He  had  help,  indeed  :  but  the  more 
he  had  the  more  he  enlarged  and  diversified  his  tasks,  Hum- 
boldt's sound  advice  about  his  zoological  undertakings  being 
no  more  heeded  than  his  fulminations  against  the  glacial 
theory. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this,  Agassiz  turned  his  glance  upon  the 
glaciers,  and  the  "local  phenomenon"  became  at  once  a  co- 
mic one.  So  far  a  happy  divination ;  but  he  seems  to  have 
believed  quite  to  the  last  that  not  only  the  temperate  zones, 
but  whole  intertropical  continents  —  at  least  the  American  — 
had  been  sheeted  with  ice.  The  narrative  in  the  firsl  volume 
will  give  the  general  reader  a  vivid  but  insufficient  conception 
of  the  stupendous  work  upon  which  he  so  brilliantly  labored 
for  nearly  a  decade  of  years. 

Codum  non  animum  mutant  who  come  with  such  a  spirit 
to  a  wider  and,  scientifically,  less  developed  continent.  First 
as  visitor,  soon  as  denizen,  and  at  length  as  citizen  of  the 
American  republic,  Agassiz  rose  with  every  occasion  to  larger 
and  more  various  activities.  What  with  the  Lowell  Institute, 
the  college  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, in  addition  to  Harvard,  he  may  be  said  to  have  held 
three  or  four  professorships  at  once,  none  of  them  Binecures. 
He  had  not  been  two  months  in  the  country  before  :i  staff  of 
assistants  was  gathered  around  him  and  a  marine  zobl< 


490  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

laboratory  was  in  operation.  The  rude  shed  on  the  shore  and 
the  small  wooden  building  at  Cambridge  developed  under  his 
hand  into  the  Museum  of  Zoology,  —  if  not  as  we  see  it  now, 
yet  into  one  of  the  foremost  collections.  Who  can  say  what 
it  would  have  been  if  his  plans  and  ideas  had  obtained  full 
recognition,  and  "  expenditure  "  had  seemed  to  the  trustees, 
as  it  seemed  to  him,  "  the  best  investment,"  or  if  efficient  filial 
aid,  not  then  to  be  dreamed  of,  had  not  given  solid  realization 
to  the  high  paternal  aspirations !  In  like  manner  grew  large 
under  his  hand  the  Brazilian  exploration  so  generously  pro- 
vided for  by  a  Boston  citizen  and  fostered  by  an  enlightened 
emperor  ;  and  on  a  similar  scale  was  planned,  and  partly  car- 
ried out,  the  "  Contributions  to  the  Natural  History  of  the 
United  States,"  as  the  imperial  quarto  work  was  modestly  en- 
titled, which  was  to  be  published  "  at  the  rate  of  one  volume 
a  year,  each  volume  to  contain  about  three  hundred  pages  and 
twenty  plates,"  with  simple  reliance  upon  a  popular  subscrip- 
tion ;  —  and  so,  indeed,  of  everything  which  this  large-minded 
man  undertook. 

While  Agassiz  thus  was  a  magnanimous  man,  in  the  literal 
as  well  as  the  accepted  meaning  of  the  word,  he  was  also,  as 
we  have  seen,  a  truly  fortunate  one.  Honorable  assistance 
came  to  him  at  critical  moments,  such  as  the  delicate  gift 
from  Humboldt  at  Paris,  which  perhaps  saved  him  to  science ; 
such  as  the  Wollaston  prize  from  the  Geological  Society  in 
1834,  when  he  was  struggling  for  the  means  of  carrying  on 
the  Fossil  Fishes.  The  remainder  of  the  deficit  of  this  under- 
taking he  was  able  to  make  up  from  his  earliest  earnings  in 
America.  For  the  rest,  we  all  know  how  almost  everything 
he  desired  —  and  he  wanted  nothing  except  for  science  —  was 
cheerfully  supplied  to  his  hand  by  admiring  givers.  Those 
who  knew  the  man  during  the  twenty-seven  years  of  his 
American  life  can  quite  understand  the  contagious  enthusiasm 
and  confidence  which  he  evoked.  The  impression  will  in 
some  degree  be  transmitted  by  these  pleasant  and  timely  vol- 
umes, which  should  make  the  leading  lines  of  the  life  of 
Agassiz  clear  to  the  newer  generation,  and  deepen  them  in 
the  memory  of  an  older  one. 


EDWARD  TUCKEBMAN.1 

On  the  15th  of  March  last,  the  Academy  lost  one  of  the 
older  and  more  distinguished  members  of  the  botanical  section, 

the  lichenologist,  Edward  Tuckerman. 

He  was  born  in  Boston,  December  7,  1817.  was  the  eldest 
son  of  a  Boston  merchant  of  the  same  name  and  of  Sophia 
(May)  Tuckerman.  lie  was  prepared  for  college  at  the  Bos- 
ton Latin  School,  whence,  in  obedience  to  his  father's  choice 
rather  than  of  his  own,  he  went  to  Union  College  at  Schenec- 
tady. Entering  as  a  sophomore,  he  took  his  B.  A.  degree  in 
1837.  He  then  entered  the  Harvard  Law  School,  took  his 
degree  in  1839,  and  remained  in  residence  in  Cambridge  for 
a  year  or  two  longer.  In  the  year  1841  he  went  to  ( rermany 
and  Scandinavia,  going  as  far  north  as  Qpsala,  devoting  him- 
self, as  in  a  subsequent  visit,  to  philosophical,  historical,  and 
botanical  studies.  On  his  return,  in  September,  1^4  li,  he 
made,  with  the  writer  of  this  notice,  a  botanical  excursion  to 
the  White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  with  which  he  was 
already  familiar.  At  the  close  of  that  orearly  in  the  following 
year  he  took  up  his  residence  at  Union  College,  proceeded  t<> 
the  M.  A.  degree,  and  there  prepared  and  privately  published 
one  of  the  smaller,  but  noteworthy,  of  his  botanical  papers. 

In  the  year  1844  or  1845  he  returned  to  Cambridge,  and 
in  the  autumn  of  184G,  in  his  twenty-ninth  year,  he  became 
again  an  undergraduate.  Applying  for  admission  to  tin-  in- 
coming senior  class,  he  remarked  to  Presidenl  Quincy  that 
his  father  had  broken  the  family  tradition  by  Bending  him  to 
another  college,  and  that  he  proposed  to  correct  tin-  mistake. 
To  the  suggestion,  that,  being  already  an  alumnus  of  the  Law- 
School  as  well  as  of  Union,  the  University  would  willingly 
concede  to  him  the  earlier  degrees  he  'sought,  he  replied   that 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Aits  and  Scklioes,  new 
ser.  xiii.,  539.     (188G.) 


492  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

he  proposed  to  receive  them  in  the  ordinary  way.  He  accord- 
ingly passed  the  regular  examinations,  took  the  whole  routine 
of  the  studies  of  his  class,  and  so  was  graduated  with  distinc- 
tion in  the  class  of  1847,  —  a  unique  but  characteristic  illus- 
tration of  a  loyal  spirit,  becoming  "  small  by  degrees  and 
beautifully  less." 

His  passion  for  university  study  was  not  yet  quite  satiated. 
For,  two  or  three  years  later,  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School,  passed  through  its  course  of  study  and  prescribed 
exercises,  —  among  them  the  delivery  of  a  sermon  in  one  of 
the  Cambridge  churches,  —  and  so,  in  the  year  1852,  he  be- 
came for  the  third  time  an  alumnus  of  Harvard. 

In  May,  1854,  he  married  in  Boston  Sarah  Eliza  Sigourney 
dishing,  who  survives  him,  without  offspring.  Removing 
that  year  to  Amherst,  he  built  with  excellent  taste,  upon  a 
beautiful  site,  the  house  which  has  ever  since  been  their 
abode.  Although  mainly  devoted  to  botanical  investigations, 
his  first  official  connection  with  Amherst  College  was  that  of 
lecturer  in  history,  then  that  of  professor  of  oriental  history, 
down  to  the  year  1858,  when  he  was  collated  to  the  chair 
of  botany,  which  he  held  to  the  end  of  his  life,  although  of 
late  years  relieved  from  the  duty  of  class  instruction.  The 
college  did  itself  the  honor  to  confer  upon  its  professor  the 
decree  of  LL.  D. 

We  cannot  say  when  or  how  Professor  Tuckerman  became 
a  botanist.  But  at  an  early  period  he  was  intimate  with  Dr. 
Harris,  then  University  librarian,  and  with  the  ardent  Wil- 
liam Oakes  of  Ipswich,  upon  whom,  through  Dr.  Osgood  of 
Danvers,  descended  the  mantle  of  Manasseh  Cutler,  of  Essex 
County,  the  earliest  New  England  botanist. 

He  must  have  been  attracted  to  the  Lichens  almost  from 
the  beginning  ;  for  his  first  publications  were  upon  Lichens 
of  New  England,  lar^elv  those  of  his  own  collecting  in  the 
White  and  Green  Mountains,  in  two  papers,  one  communi- 
cated to  the  Boston  Natural  History  Society,  in  1838  or  1839, 
the  other  in  1840.  These  were  soon  followed  by  papers  on 
Phsenogamous  botany,  namely :  one  "  On  Oakesia  a  new 
Genus  of  the  Order  Empetrese,"  a  contribution  made  while 


EDWARD   TUCRERMAN.  408 

he  was  abroad,  in  the  summer  of  1842,  to  Hooker's  "  London 
Journal  of  Botany."  Unfortunately,  the  Interesting  plant 
which  he  thus  dedicated  to  his  botanical  associate,  William 
Oakes,  who  well  deserved  such  commem. .ration,  proved  to  be 
a  second  species  of  Corema.  In  1843,  at  Schenectady,  he 
privately  printed  and  issued  his"  Enumeratio  Methodica  Cari- 
cum  quarundam"  (pp.  21,  8vo),  in  which  be  displayed  Dot 
only  his  critical  knowledge  of  the  large  and  difficult  genus 
Carex,  but  also  his  genius  as  a  systematize  r  :  for  this  i 
was  the  first  considerable,  and  a  really  successful,  attempt  to 
combine  the  species  of  this  genus  into  natural  groups.  It  is 
wholly  in  Latin,  which  he  much  affected  for  scientific  disquisi- 
tion as  well  as  for  technical  characters,  and  used  with  facility 
and  elegance.  In  the  same  year  also  appeared,  in  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science,  the  first  of  his  "  Observations  on  some 
interesting  Plants  of  New  England."  This  was  followed  in 
1848  by  a  second,  and  in  1849  by  a  third  paper  in  the  same 
Journal;  these  containing,  inter  alia,  his  elaboration  of  our 
species  of  Potamogeton,  then  for  the  first  time  critically 
studied.  These  papers  —  with  one  or  two  in  Hovey's  Maga- 
zine and  elsewhere,  at  about  the  same  date  —  may  he  said  to 
have  ended  his  work  in  Phaenogamous  botany,  although  his 
interest  in  the  subject  never  died  out;  for  when  he  accepted 
the  chair  of  botany  at  Amherst  he  began  the  preparation  of 
"A  Catalogue  of  Plants  growing  without  cultivation  within 
thirty  miles  of  Amherst  College,"  which  he  published  in  the 
year  1875,  the  late  Mr.  Charles  Frost  of  Brattleborough  con- 
tributing the  lower  Cryptogamia  other  than  the  Lichens.  In 
matter  and  form,  as  well  as  in  typography  ( in  which  Profes- 
sor Tuckerman  had  exquisite  taste),  this  catalogue  i-  one  of 
the  very  best. 

But  it  was  to  Lichenology  that  his  strength,  as  indeed  al- 
most his  whole  life,  was  most  assiduously  devoted.  W  ben, 
in  his  youth,  the  active  members  of  the  newly  organised 
Natural  History  Society  of  Boston  divided  anion-  themselves 
the  work  of  making  better  known  the  animals  plants,  and 
minerals  of  Massachusetts,  the  study  of  the  Lichens  either 
was  assigned  to  him  or  he  volunteered  to  undertake  it.     From 


494  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

this  came  those  earliest  papers  which  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. Also  his  "  Synopsis  of  the  Lichens  of  New  England, 
the  other  Northern  States,  and  British  America,"  communi- 
cated to  this  Academy  in  the  autumn  of  1847,  which  is  the 
most  considerable  botanical  contribution  to  the  first  volume  of 
the  Proceedings.  The  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  vol- 
umes contain  other  of  his  Lichenological  papers,  of  wholly 
original  matter  and  critical  character,  —  largely  upon  collec- 
tions which  had  begun  to  come  to  him  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain region,  from  Texas,  the  Pacific  coast,  the  Sandwich  Is- 
lands, and  especially  from  the  rich  materials  gathered  in  Cuba 
and  elsewhere  by  the  late  Charles  Wright.  In  these  years, 
too,  he  much  helped  the  study  of  his  favorite  plants  by  the 
preparation  and  issue  of  his  "  Lichenes  American  Septentrio- 
nalis  Exsiccati,"  in  six  fasciculi,  or  three  volumes,  highly 
valued  by  those  who  fortunately  possess  them.  Equally  for- 
tunate are  the  herbaria  which  possess  the  "  Lichenes  Caroli 
Wrightii  Cuba3  curante  E.  Tuckerman,"  which  authenticate 
his  thorough  work  upon  that  portion  of  Mr.  Wright's  Cuban 
collections  that  he  undertook  to  elaborate. 

Passing  without  notice  various  subsidiary  contributions 
both  to  journals  and  to  the  reports  of  exploring  expeditions, 
we  come  to  a  pamphlet  which  he  independently  published  at 
Amherst,  in  1866,  entitled  "  Lichens  of  California,  Oregon, 
and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  so  far  as  yet  known,"  which,  small 
though  it  be  (pp.  35,  8vo),  is  particularly  noteworthy ;  for 
in  this  he  lays  down  the  principles  and  matured  opinions 
which  he  had  adopted,  and  which  he  firmly  adhered  to,  for 
the  taxonomy  and  classification  of  Lichens.  These  are  fully 
exemplified  in  the  two  systematic  works  to  which  Professor 
Tuckerman's  later  years  and  maturest  powers  were  persist- 
ently devoted,  —  works  which,  partly  from  their  publication 
somewhat  out  of  the  ordinary  channels,  are  by  no  means  so 
well  known  as  they  should  be,  but  which  surely  secure  to  their 
author  the  position  of  a  master  in  his  department,  —  in  which, 
indeed,  we  suppose  he  has  left  behind  him  no  superior. 
These  works  are,  first,  the  "  Genera  Lichenum,  an  Arrange- 
ment of  the  North  American  Lichens  "  (pp.  283,  8vo),  pub- 


EDWARD    TUCKERMAN.  495 

lished  at  Amherst  in  the  year  1872  ;  second,  the  "Synopsis 
of  the  North  American  Lichens,"  Part  I,  comprising  the 
Parmeliacei,  Cladoniei,  and  Comogoniei,  published  in  Bos- 
ton in  1882.  It  is  hoped,  but  it  is  not  yet  certain,  that  some 
portions  of  the  remainder,  relating  to  the  Less  conspicuous 
but  more  difficult  tribes,  may  have  been  substantially  made 
ready  for  the  printer.  The  loss,  we  fear,  is  irreparable  :  for 
the  work  cannot  be  completed  by  other  hands  upon  quite 
the  same  lines,  nor  in  our  day  with  the  same  knowledge  and 
insight;  and  Professor  Tuckerman's  mode  of  exposition  is 
inimitable. 

That  which  Professor  Tuckerman  did  accomplish,  however, 
suffices  to  show  the  wide  reach  and  remarkable  precision  <>f 
his  knowledge,  his  patience  and  thoroughness  in  investigation, 
his  sagacity  in  detecting  affinities,  and  his  philosophical  and 
rather  peculiar  turn  of  mind.  He  wrote  in  a  style  which  — 
though  perhaps  founded  on  that  of  his  botanical  model,  Fries, 
for  succinctness,  and  that  of  his  favorite  German  philosoph- 
ical masters  for  involution  —  was  yet  all  his  own,  and  which 
was  the  more  pronounced  in  advancing  years,  when,  owing  t<> 
increasing-  deafness  and  delicate  health,  he  led  a  more  secluded 
life.  In  disquisition,  the  long  and  comprehensive  sentences 
which  he  so  carefully  constructs  are  unmistakably  clear  to 
those  who  will  patiently  plod  their  way  through  them,  and 
his  choice  even  of  unusual  words  is  generally  felicitous  :  hut 
sometimes  the  statements  are  so  hedged  about  and  interpene- 
trated by  qualifications  or  reservations,  and  so  pregnant  with 
subsidiary  although  relevant  considerations,  that  they  are  far 
from  easy  reading.  Like  nests  of  pill-boxes,  they  are  packed 
into  least  bulk  ;  but  for  practical  use  they  Deed  t«>  !>.■  taken 
apart. 

That  Professor  Tuckerman  could  write  idiomatic  ami  clear- 
flowing  English  upon  occasion,  the  delightful  introduction  to 
his  edition  of  Josselyn's  "  New  England's  Rarities"  demon- 
strates ;  and  in  the  framing  of  botanical  descriptive  phrases, 
Latin  or  English,  in  which  clearness  and  brevity  with  just 
order  and  proportion  are  desiderata,  lie  had  hardly  a  Buperior. 

As  has  been  said,  his  botanical  model  was  Eliaa  Pries,     He 


496  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

had  visited  him  at  Upsala,  and  he  kept  up  a  correspondence 
with  him  to  the  end  of  the  venerable  botanist's  life.  He  caught 
from  Fries,  or  he  developed  independently,  and  cultivated  to 
perfection,  that  sense  of  the  value  of  the  indefinable  something 
which  botanists  inadequately  express  by  the  term  "  habit," 
which  often  enables  the  systematist  to  divine  much  further  than 
he  can  perceive  in  the  tracing  of  relationships.  Upon  this,  in 
direct  reference  to  Fries,  and  with  a  use  of  the  term  that  seems 
to  correlate  it  with  "insight,"  Tuckerman  remarks  :  uSo  great 
is  the  value  of  Habit  in  minds  fully  qualified  to  apprehend  and 
appreciate  its  subtleties,  that  such  minds  may  not  only  antici- 
pate what  the  microscope  is  to  reveal,  but  help  us  to  under- 
stand its  revelations."  It  should  be  remembered,  however, 
that  when  Fries  did  the  best  of  his  work  there  were  no  micro- 
scopes of  much  account ;  and  it  is  probable  that  Tuckerman 
would  have  done  more,  and  perhaps  have  reached  some  differ- 
ent conclusions,  if  he  had  earlier  and  more  largely  used  the 
best  instrumental  appliances  of  the  time.  One  advantage,  how- 
ever, of  his  way  of  study,  and  his  philosophical  conception  of 
an  ideal  connection  of  forms  which  are  capable  of  a  wide  play 
of  variation,  was  that  he  took  broad  views  of  genera  and  spe- 
cies. So  he  was  quite  unlike  that  numerous  race  of  special- 
ists who,  in  place  of  characterizing  species,  describe  specimens, 
and  to  whom  "  genus  "  means  the  lowest  recognizable  group 
of  species. 

As  to  the  vexed  question  in  Lichenology,  which  came  to 
him  rather  late  and  seemed  to  threaten  the  stability  of  his 
work,  it  was  most  natural  that,  at  his  time  of  life,  he  did  not 
take  kindly  to  the  Algo-fungal  notion  of  Lichens,  and  that  he 
was  convinced  of  its  falsity  by  questionable  evidence. 

Professor  Tuckerman  was  much  more  than  an  excellent  spe- 
cialist. Happily,  he  did  not  become  such  until  he  had  laid  a 
good  foundation,  for  the  time,  in  general  systematic  botany ; 
and  his  early  studies  show  that  he  was  a  man  of  scholarly  cul- 
ture over  an  unusually  wide  range.  He  was  at  home  in  the 
leading  modern  languages  ;  he  wrote  Latin  with  reasonable 
facility,  and  botanical  Latin  remarkably  well ;  he  had  given 
serious  attention  to  law,  divinity,  philosophy,  and  history ;  and 


EDWARD   TUCKERMAN.  497 

he  was  fond  of  antiquarian  and  genealogical  researches.  I  Ie 
privately  published  (without  date)  a  handsome  edition  of  Josse- 
lyn's  "New  England's  Rarities  Discovered,"  with  copious  crit- 
ical annotations,  of  134  pages,  including  an  introduction  of  27 
pages,  which  contains  a  biography  of  Josselyn  and  a  sketch  of 
the  earlier  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  New  England  plants 
and  of  some  of  the  people  who  made  them  known.1  Among 
them  is  a  biographical  notice  of  Manasseh  Cutler,  one  of  the 
very  first  elected  Fellows  of  this  Academy,  the  earliest  bo- 
tanical contributor  to  its  Memoirs,  —  pastor,  naturalist,  and 
statesman,  the  builder  of  New  England  in  Ohio,  probably  the 
originator  of  the  Dane  Resolutions  in  Congress,  —  a  man 
whose  name  deserves  larger  remembrance  than  it  has  yet  re- 
ceived. 

Professor  Tuckerman  was  elected  into  this  Academy  in  May, 
1845.  He  was  one  of  the  corporate  members  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences  at  Washington,  and  an  honorary  member 
of  several  of  the  learned  societies  and  academies  of  Europe. 
He  was  still  young  when  Nuttall  dedicated  to  him  the  genua 
Tuckermania,  founded  upon  one  of  the  handsomer  of  the 
Calif ornian  Compositce,  which  is  retained  as  a  subgenus.  For 
one  who  did  not  attain  the  age  of  sixty-seven,  his  publications 
span  a  remarkably  wide  interval.  It  is  said  that  he  contrib- 
uted several  short  articles  on  antiquarian  topics  to  the  i-  Mer- 
cantile Journal,"  in  the  year  1832  ;  also  that,  in  1832  and 
1833,  he  assisted  the  late  Mr.  Samuel  G.  Drake  in  the  pre- 
paration of  his  "Book  of  the  Indians  "  and  "  Indian  Wars." 
Then,  between  1834  and  1841,  he  contributed  to  the  "New 
York  Churchman"  no  less  than  fifty-four  articles,  under  the 
title  of  "  Notitia  Literaria  "  and  "Adversaria,"  upon  points  in 
history,  biography,  and  theology.  His  latest  botanical  article 
was  contributed  to  the  "Bulletin  of  the  Torrey  Botanical 
Club"  in  1884.  A  little  later,  possibly,  are  some  of  his  con- 
tributions to  the  "  Church  Eclectic,"  mostly  pseudonymous, 
—  critical  notices  of  recent  theological  works.  He  waa  a 
keen  critic,  and  very  independent  in  his  judgments.      He  had 

1  It  appears  that  this  was  a  contribution  to  the  fourth  volume  of  the 
"  Archseologia  Americana,"  published  in  1800. 


498  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 

sounded  in  his  time  the  depths  of  various  opinions.  But  as  he 
was  born  into,  so  he  died,  as  he  had  lived,  devoutly,  in  the 
communion  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  With  some 
interruptions,  and  of  late  under  increasing  infirmities,  he  yet 
continued  his  Lichenological  studies  until  within  a  few  weeks 
before  the  end.  Living  for  a  long  while  in  comparative  seclu- 
sion, few  of  our  younger  botanists  can  have  known  him  per- 
sonally, or  much  by  correspondence ;  and  most  of  his  old  asso- 
ciates and  near  friends,  who  knew  him  best  and  prized  him 
highly  for  his  sterling  character,  have  gone  before  him. 


INDEX. 


Aconitum  reclinatum,  57. 

Aconitum  uncinatum,  27. 

Adansonia  digitata,  118. 

^Estivation  and  its  terminology,  181. 

^Estivation,  definition  of,  181 ;  termi- 
nology of,  183  ;  history  of,  184. 

Estivation,  qnincuneial,  187. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  sketch  of,  483. 

Age  of  trees,  the  manner  of  determin- 
ing, discussed,  84. 

Alchemilla  alpina,  247. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  flora  of,  276. 

America,  plants  of  North,  common  to 
eastern  Asia  (Tahle),  165. 

American  and  Asiatic  plants  contrasted 
(Tahle),  165. 

American  climate  described,  208. 

American  (Pacific  North)  plants  com- 
mon to  eastern  Asia  (Tahle),  174. 

American  (North)  plants  common  to 
Europe,  171. 

American  vegetation,  aspects  of,  143. 

Amianthium  muscaitoxicum,  49. 

Amphicarpma,  50. 

Apios  tuber osa,  201. 

Arboretum  Britannicum,  account  of 
the,  77. 

Archaeology  and  forest-geography,  204. 

Arcueil,  Soci^te"  d\  302. 

Arnott,  Dr.,  herbarium  of,  14. 

Asarum,  40. 

Asia,  extra  European  plants  of  east- 
ern, found  in  North  America  (Table), 
165. 

Asia,  extra  European  plants  of  east- 
ern, found  in  Pacific  North  America 
(Table),  170. 

Astilbe  decandra,61. 

Azalea  calendulacea,  47. 


Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  herbarium  of,  In. 
Banyan-tree,  mod.-  of  growth  of,  81, 
Baobab-tree,  1 18. 
Bartram,  William,  his  journey  to  the 

Alleghany  Mountains,  --. 
Bee,  Wyman'a  Notes  on  tin-  ('''lis  of 

the,  394. 
Bentham,  George,  herbarium  of,    1l'; 

sketch  of,  451. 
Berlin,  royal  herbarium  at,  1*.*. 
Bigelow,  Jacob,  sketch  of.  413. 
Birthplace  of  existing  floras, 
Boissier,  Edmond,  sketch  of.   17'.'. 
Boott,  Francis,  sketch  of.  315. 
Botanic  Garden,  the  Elgin  (not.).  247. 
Botanical  excursion  to  the   mountains 

of  North  Carolina.  22. 
Boykinia  aconitifolia,  42. 
Brasenia  peltata,  141,  173. 
Braun,  Alexander,  Bketch  of,  403. 
British  Museum,  herbarium  of,  9. 
Brown  and  Humboldt,  Bketch  of.  - 

California  forests,  composition  of.  151. 

California,  weeds  <>f.  241. 

Cardamim  rotundifolia,  ■>'-. 

Carer  aestivalis,  ~>{  '• 

Carex  Frankii,  36. 

Carex  Tflraseriana,  54. 

Carex  gracillima,  51. 

Carex  Stenolepsis,  ">*''. 

Carex  Sullivantii,  51. 

Castagno  <li  <->ut>>  cavaUit  (.'- 

Caxdophyllum,  154. 

Cedar  of  Lebanon,  1<»". 

Characteristics  of  the  North  American 

Flora.  260. 

Chilnu  Lyonif  •">•'>. 

Chestnut-tree  of  Tortworth  Court.  '.'1 


500 


INDEX. 


Cladrastis,  154. 

Clethra  acuminata,  43. 

Climates  of  North  America,  described, 

208. 
Climatic     influence    on     selection     of 

plants,  223. 
Clinton,  George  W.,  sketch  of,  475. 
Close-breeding-,  effects  of,  179. 
Colden,  Governor,  of  New  York,  5. 
Collinson,  Peter,  7. 
Coptis,  6. 

Correa  de  Serra,  Joseph,  sketch  of,  301. 
Cretaceous  forests,  162. 
Croom,  H.  B  ,  sketch  of,  195. 
Croomia  pauciflora,  192. 
Cupressus  sempervirens,  99. 
Curtis'  explorations  of  the   Alleghany 

Mountains,  34. 
Curtis,  Moses  Ashley,  sketch  of,  351. 
Cuvier,  sketch  of,  by  De  Candolle,  297. 
Cypress  at  Somma,  100. 
Cypress  of  Montezuma,  113. 
Cypress  of  Puebela,  113- 
Cypress  of  Santa  Maria  del  Tule,  114. 
Cypress,  the  deciduous,  112. 

Darwin,  Charles,  sketch  of,  419. 
Decaisne,  Joseph,  sketch  of,  431. 
De  Candolle,  A.  P.,  sketch  of,  289. 
De  Candolle,  herbarium  of,  17. 
De  Candolle' s   views   on   longevity  of 

trees,  83. 
Dewey,  Chester,  sketch  of,  345. 
Diphylleia  cymosa,  44. 
Distribution  of  forests,  207. 
Distribution  of  species  discussed,  133, 

138. 
Do  varieties  wear  out  or  tend  to  wear 

out  ?  174. 
Douglas,     David,     travels     in    North 

America,  109. 
Douglas  Spruce,  the,  108. 
Dracaena  Draco,  123. 
Dragon-tree  of  Orotava,  123. 

Echium    vulgar e    naturalized    in   Vir- 
ginia, 35. 
Elliottia,  155. 
Elm,  the  Washington,  86. 
Elm-trees,  various  old,  86. 


Engelmann,  G  ,  sketch  of,  439. 
Etna,  the  chestnut  of  Mt.,  92. 
European  herbaria,  1. 
European    plants    common    to    North 

America,  171. 
European  plants  naturalized  in  eastern 

America  (Table),  239. 

Features  of  North  American  vegetation, 

261. 
Fendler,  Augustus,  sketch  of,  465. 
Fibraurea,  5. 
Flora,    characteristics    of    the    North 

American,  260. 
Flora  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  276. 
Flora  of  the  great  plains,  277. 
Flora    of   Japan    and   North   America 

contrasted,  125. 
Flora  of  Michaux,  the,  244. 
Flora  of  North  America,  the,  243. 
Flora  of  Japan,  the,  125. 
Flora  of  the  New  Jersey  Pine  Barrens, 

275. 
Flora  of  Pursh,  the,  245. 
Flora  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  277 
Flora  of  Torrey  and  Gray,  the,  249. 
Floras,  birthplaces  of  existing,  229. 
Floras  of  Japan  and   North   America 

contrasted  with  that  of  Europe,  129. 
Floras  of  Japan  and   North   America 

compared,  152. 
Forest  geography  and  archaeology,  204. 
Forests,  arctic  tertiary,  160. 
Forests,   aspects  of  North   American, 

204. 
Forests,  cretaceous,  162. 
Forests,  distribution  of,  207. 
Forests  of  America,  Europe,  and  east- 
ern Asia  contrasted,  218. 
Forests  of  Atlantic  and  Pacific  North 

America  contrasted,  216. 
Forests  of  California,   composition  of, 

151. 
Forests  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  212. 
Fountains'    Abbey,    ancient    yew-trees 

of,  104. 
Fraser,    John,     his    travels    in    North 

America,  31. 
Freiburg,  the  great  Linden  of,  90. 
Fries,  Elias  Magnus,  sketch  of,  411. 


INDEX. 


501 


Garden,  Dr.  John,  8. 

Gender  of  names  of  varieties,  257. 

Geography,  forest,  and  archaeology,  204. 

Gewn  geniculatum,  58. 

Ginseng,  155. 

Glacial  period,  effects   on  vegetation, 

156. 
Glyptostrobus,  fossil,  100. 
Greene,  Benjamin  D.,  sketch  of,  310. 
Greenland,  tertiary  vegetation  of,  227. 

Hanbury,  Daniel,  sketch  of,  401. 

Harvey,  William  Henry,  sketch  of,  337. 

Hedyotis  purpurea,  49. 

Heer,  Oswald,  sketch  of,  447. 

Helianthus  annuus,  203. 

Hehanthus  doronicoides,  197. 

Helianthus  lenticularis,  203. 

Helianthus  petiolaris,  203. 

Helianthus  tuberosus,  notes  on,  197. 

Herbaria,  European,  1. 

Herbaria,  of  Banks,  10 ;  of  Bentham, 
12  ;  of  De  Candolle,  17 ;  of  Hooker, 
12 ;  of  Kunth,  20  ;  of  Lambert,  12 ; 
of  Lindley,  13 ;  of  Linnaeus,  2,  4; 
of  Michaux,  16  ;  of  the  British  Mu- 
seum, 9. 

Heuchera  caulescens,  37 ;  H.  hispida, 
38  ;  H.  villosa,  37. 

Holosteum  succulentum,  5. 

Hooker,  W.  J.,  herbarium  of,  12; 
sketch  of,  321. 

Houstonia  serpylli folia,  40. 
Humboldt  and  Brown,  sketch  of,  283. 
Hydrangea,  154. 

Infusoria,  Wyman's  experiments  on 
the  formation  of,  395. 

James,  Thomas  Potts,  sketch  of,  433. 

Japan,  the  flora  of,  125. 

Jardin  des  Plantes,  account  of,  14. 

Jeffersonia,  154. 

Jerusalem  Artichoke,  Canadian  origin 

of,  discussed,  200  ;  note  on,  197. 
Juniperus  Virginiana,  220. 

Kalm's  visit  to  North  America,  4. 
Kin's  travels  in  North  America,  33. 
Kunth.  herbarium  of,  20. 


Lambert,  A.  B.,  herbarium  of.  12. 
Lebanon,  ( ledar  <>t'.  L00, 
L*  iopkyllum,  59. 
Lespedeza  striata,  236. 
Libocedrus,  161. 
Ligtuticum  actceifolium,  47. 
Linden-tree  of  Freiburg,  89;  of  N.  li- 
st.-i.lt.  90. 
Lindley,  herbarium  of ,  12;  sketch  of, 

333. 
Linnaeus'    herbarium    transferred    to 

England.  '1. 
Listera  convallarioides,  11. 
Live  Oak,  tbu 
Longevity  of  trees,  71 ;   De  Candolle*! 

views  on,  83. 
Los  Cupressos  de  hi  Reyna  8idtana 
Loudon,  J.  ('..  sketch  <>f.  76. 
Lowell,  John  Amory,  Bketeh  <>f.  435. 

Magnolia  Frasfri,  40. 
Maple,  the  sycamore,  of  Tront 
Medicago  denticulata,  234. 
M<  lissa  Nepeta,  38. 
Michaux,  A.,  flora  of,  244;  herbarium 
of,    16;    travels  in  North    America, 
23,  73. 
Michaux,  F.  A.,  North  American sylva, 

71;  travels  in  North  America,  32. 
Mirbel,  C.  F.,  De  Candolle's  opinion 

of,  294. 
Mitchell,  Dr.  John,  6. 
MitcheUa  repens,  6. 
Mold,  Hugo  von.  Bketeh  <»f.  364 
Monsters,  developmenl  <>f  doubli 
Montezuma,  the  Cypress  of ,  118. 
Munich,  herbarium  at,  18. 

Names  of  varieties,  gender  of,  257. 
Neustadt,  the  Linden  oi 
New  Jersey  Pine-Barrens,  flora  «>f.  275. 
North  America,  the  flora  «>f.  243. 
North  American   flora,  oharactw 

of  the,  260. 
North  Carolina,  cotes  of   i   botanical 

excursion  to  the  mountain* 
Notes  "ii  the  historj  of  Helianthu  ft* 

h,  rosus,  197. 
NuttalTa   North   American  sylra,  75  j 

travels  in  North  Anw  ri 


502 


INDEX. 


Oak,  the  Live,  98. 

Oak,  the  Wads  worth,  97. 

Oak-tree,  the,  near  Saintes,  96. 

Oak-trees,  remarkable,  94. 

Olive-tree  of  Pescio,  98. 

Onoclea  sensibilis,  genealogy  of,  162. 

Origin  of  Sequoias  discussed,  144. 

Origin  of   species  discussed,   134,   172, 

225. 
Origin  of  the  prairies  discussed,  214. 
Orotava,  Dragon-tree  of,  123. 

Pampas,  absence  of  trees  from  the,  dis- 
cussed, 263. 

Pertinacity  and  predominance  of 
weeds,  234. 

Pescio,  Olive-tree  of,  99. 

Phlox  Carolina,  50. 

Pickering,  Charles,  sketch  of,  406. 

Pilgrimage  to  Torreya,  189. 

Pine,  the  White,  107. 

Pine-Barrens  of  New  Jersey,  flora  of, 
275. 

Pinus  Lambertiana,  108. 

Plains,  flora  of  the  great,  277. 

Plane-tree,  large  specimens  of  the,  91. 

Plantago  cucullata,  247. 

Plants  common  to  eastern  America 
and  eastern  Asia,  269. 

Plants  common  to  eastern  Asia  and 
North  America  (Table),  165. 

Plants  common  to  east  Asia  and  Pa- 
cific North  America  (Table),  170. 

Plants  common  to  Europe  and  North 
America,  171. 

Plants,  European,  naturalized  in  eastern 
America  (Table),  239. 

Plants  of  America  absent  from  Europe, 
268. 

Plants  selected  by  climatic  influence, 
223. 

Podophyllum,  154. 

Polygonella  parvifolia,  25. 

Populus  tremuloides,  220. 

Prairies,  origin  of,  discussed,  214. 

Predominance  and  pertinacity  of 
weeds,  234. 

Puebela,  the  Cypress  of,  113. 

Pursh,  the  flora  of,  245 ;  sketch  of, 
245  ;  travels  in  North  America,  32. 


Pycnanthemum,  remarks  on,  67. 
Pyrularia  oleifera,  44. 

Baia  Batis,  Wyman's  investigation  of 

the  development  of,  391. 
Bana  pipiens,  Wyman's  paper  on,  389. 
Bhododendron    Catawbie?ise,    discovery 

of,  31. 
Bhus  toxicodendron,  154. 
Rhus  venenata,  154. 
Roan  Mountain,  plants  on  the  summit 

of,  64. 
Rocky  Mountains,  flora  of,  277. 
Roeper,    Johannes    August    Christian, 

sketch  of,  482. 
Rumford,  sketch  of,  by  De  Candolle, 

297. 

Santa  Maria  del  Tule,  the  Cypress  of, 
114. 

Sartwell,  Henry  P.,  sketch  of,  343. 

Saxifraga  Careyana,  55. 

Scutellaria  Guilielrni,  168. 

Scutellaria  serrata,  40. 

Sedum  pusillum,  habitat  of,  29. 

Sequoia  and  its  history,  142. 

Sequoia,  fossil,  159. 

Sequoia  Longsdorfii,  159. 

Sequoia  Sternberpii,  159. 

Sequoias,  origin  of,  discussed,  144. 

Short,  Charles  Wilkins,  sketch  of,  312. 

Shortia  galacifolia,  69. 

Sierra  Nevada  forests,  212. 

Smith's,  Sir  James  E.,  herbarium,  9; 
purchase  of  Linnaeus'  herbarium,  2. 

Soci^te*  d'Arcueil,  302. 

Solidago  glomerata,  57. 

Somma,  the  great  Cypress  of,  100. 

Species,  distribution  of,  discussed,  133, 
138  ;  number  of,  in  the  North  Amer- 
ican Floras.  252  ;  origin  of,  discussed, 
134,  172,  225. 

Spruce,  the  Douglas,  108. 

Sullivant,  Wm.  Sterling,  sketch  of,  376. 

Sullivantia  Ohionis,  43. 

Sylva  of  North  America,  Michaux's, 
71 ;  Nuttall's,  75. 

Taxodium  distichum,  112. 
Taxodium,  fossil,  159. 


INDEX. 


503 


Terminology  of  aestivation,  181. 

Tertiary  arctic  forests,  160;  vegeta- 
tion of  Greenland,  227. 

Thalictrum  clavatum,  39. 

Thalictrum  Richard  sonii,  39. 

Tilia  heterophylla,  37. 

Torrey,  John,  sketch  of,  359. 

Torrey  and  Gray's  Flora,  249. 

Torreya,  distribution  of,  149 ;  geneal- 
ogy of,  161 ;  pilgrimage  to,  189. 

Tortworth,  the  Chestnut  of,  94. 

Trautvetteria  palmata,  44. 

Trees,  absence  of,  from  the  pampas, 
263 ;  manner  of  determining  their 
age  discussed,  84 ;  manner  of  growth 
of,  described,  80 ;  of  Canada  and 
Great  Britain  contrasted,  266 ;  the 
longevity  of,  71. 

Troglodytes  Gorilla,  Wyman's  paper 
on,  386.  - 

Trons,  the  Sycamore-Maple  of,  89. 

Trumbull,  J.  H.,  letter  on  the  Jerusa- 
lem Artichoke,  198. 

Tuckerman,  Edward,  sketch  of,  491. 

Vaccinium  Constablozi,  65. 
Vaccinium  erythrocarpwn,  45. 
Vaccinium  macrocarpum,  167. 
Varieties,  do  they  wear  out  or  tend  to 
wear  out  ?  174. 


Varieties,  gender  of  nam.  }<  :.  257. 

Vegetable  kingdom,  history  of,  dis- 
cussed, 140. 

Vegetation,  aspects  oi  North  Ameri- 
can, 143,  261. 

Veratrum  parviflorwn,  48. 

Vienna,  herbarium  at,  L& 

Wads-worth  Oak,  97. 

Walker-Arnot,  Qeoig     A     sketch  of, 

347. 

W.nd.  Nathaniel  Bagshaw,  sketch  of, 
349. 

Webb,  P.  Barker,  herbarium  of,  16. 

Weed,  definition  of  a,  284. 

Weeds  of   California,  241  ; 
North  America,  24 J  ;  origin  of  Amer- 
ican, 235;  pertinacity  and  predomi- 
nance of,  L'34. 

Welwitsch,  Frederick,  sketch  of, 

White  Pine,  the,  107. 

Wight,  Robert,  sketch  of,  I 

Wistaria,  154. 

Wright,  Charles,  sketch  of.  468. 

Wyman,  Jeffries,  sketch  of,  377. 

Yew-trees,  ancient,  103;  of  Fouir 
Abbey,  104. 

Zigadenus  glaucus,  49. 


'■<-      ..: 


m 

sill 

Wk 


Wnffll 


m 


m 


.:  ! 


>v':':-:: 


